This appeared today in Garrison Keillor’s “The Writers’ Almanac”:
J.D. Salinger‘s novel The Catcher in the Rye was published on this date in 1951 (books by this author). The novel begins, “If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.”
Salinger had thought about Holden Caulfield for years. He carried six Caulfield stories with him when he went off to fight in World War II. The stories were with Salinger on the beach at Normandy and in the hours he spent with Ernest Hemingway in Paris. By the time Salinger began to assemble the novel The Catcher in the Rye, he had nine stories about Holden and his family.
When he finished the manuscript, Salinger sent it to publisher Robert Giroux at Harcourt, Brace. Giroux was impressed with the book, and was pleased to be its editor, but he never thought it would be a best-seller. Giroux sent the book to his boss, Eugene Reynal. Reynal didn’t really get it, and sent it to a textbook editor for his opinion, since it was about a prep-school boy. The textbook editor didn’t like it, so Harcourt, Brace would not publish it. Rival house Little, Brown picked it up right away, and Robert Giroux quit his job and went to work for Farrar, Strauss instead.
Reviewers called the book “brilliant,” “funny,” and “meaningful.” Salinger couldn’t cope with the amount of publicity and celebrity the book gave him. He moved to a hilltop home in New Hampshire and lived the rest of his life in seclusion. Many directors approached Salinger over the years, hoping to obtain the movie rights, and Salinger turned them all down.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
I teach this to ninth grade, and they all love it. It gives them a glimpse into a world they are really curious about, the world of privilege. And then I like to show the biography on HBO and have them write their first literary analysis using the biographical lens. I don’t know what I will do this year because everything is just messed up. It looks like they are trying to mandate something, anything that is not a classroom novel. It’s strange because even Doug Lemov believes in challenging our students with a rigorous English curriculum based on tons of books, including the dreaded canon. Doing this during Covid will be quite the challenge.
LaWanda, I do not think it would be a challenge if you worked with small teams of students during your Zoom meetings (or whatever another platform you are using.)
To make it work, I think it is possible to set up folders in Google Docs for each team of students where they share their writing exclusively with the teacher and the other members of their small team.
The challenge will be for the teacher scheduling all the small teams/groups so the teacher can be with them in each internet meet up through a site like Zoom, reading all their work in the Google Doc folders, and leaving comments.
Google Docs can be set up so only comments can be left and no one can edit or change the original documents that are loaded into each folder. And I understand no one outside of each approved group is allowed access to those folders.
I’m still learning how this all works. After March, the face-to-face writing critique groups I belonged to went online using Zoom, WebEx, and Google Docs. Even several months later, we were still learning how to make it all work and it is working and getting better all the time.
In fact, I think my writing is getting better feedback than when we were having face-to-face critique meetings, but that is because of Google Docs letting everyone read your work and leave comments without changing the original draft — those changes are up to the writers.
During our Zoom and/or WebEx meetings, that is when each writer gets to read their work to the rest of the group and receive instant feedback.
Using Zoom and/or WebEx along with Google Doc folders is what makes it a powerful tool for learning.
Isn’t that weird and counterintuitive? What better time to put your feet up and read a novel? From what little snippets I’ve gotten from “improved [over Spring 2020] remote instruction” (mainly from LeftCoastTeacher), there may be (a)less time online in view of “too much screentime”, (b)curtailed assnts, recognizing increased difficulty of dealing w/ new medium, &– at minimum– (c)an hour or two freed up on at-home-learning days, due to no commuting.
This may be a time to get back to classical education: curl up with good books, think about them, discuss them, and let them lead you to more books, good and bad.
“The President has said unmistakably that he wants schools to open, and when he says open, he means open in full, kids being able to attend each and every day at their school. The science should not stand in the way of this. –Kayleigh McEnany, today
Pity the satirist, for none can equal the parodying that Trump and his people do of themselves.
What a remarkable statement by Trump’s press secretary. “Science should not stand in the way” of Trump’s will. Sounds insane.
“Science should not stand in the way of Trump’s will.”
Just in case a Trumpist is reading this and thinks this is fake news, listen firsthand:
I think this is Trump ordering his underlings to find ways to test the U.S. Constitution in attempts to subvert its power into Trump’s little bitty hands and even smaller mind.
I just tweeted that remarkably stupid line.
It’s pretty astonishing.
New campaign slogan?
The new Trump campaign slogan”
“Science should not be allowed to get in the way of making America Great Again”
Kayleigh makes no sense whatsoever.
She even lies with a slight smirk.
Wonder who is giving her the lines and who’s paying her?
We, the taxpayers, are paying her to lie to us.
Per etymonline.com, re: “science”:
mid-14thC, “what is known; knowledge (of something) acquired by study; information”; also “assurance of knowledge, certitude, certainty,” from Old French science “knowledge, learning, application; corpus of human knowledge”, from Latin scientia “knowledge, a knowing, expertness,” from sciens (genitive scientis) “intelligent, skilled,” present participle of scire “to know”…
Right. Wouldn’t want any of that s*** gumming up policy!
Scientia potentia est. Knowledge is power.
Thanks, Ginny!
I’ve taught this book, and it is, ofc, very well written, but at risk to my reputation as an English teacher, I must admit that I’ve always found Holden Caulfield more than a little bit obnoxious and creepy.
I must admit, however, that these are some funny lines:
“I’m lucky, though. I mean I could shoot the old bull to old Spencer and think about those ducks at the same time. It’s funny. You don’t have to think too hard when you talk to a teacher.”
Makes me think about the countless times when I asked students decidedly lame questions. Mea culpa! Part of the attraction of teaching is the fascination of what’s difficult.
Oddly enough, after writing these words, I picked up my copy of the book and started rereading it, which I haven’t done in many years, and I’m both really enjoying it and appreciating the subtlety and depth of the main character. Hmmm.
Pleasantly surprised this book — which I loved in high school and I assume I would love today — hasn’t been cancelled yet.
Good point. I loved it when I was 16. Hated it when I was 30. Enjoying it again now. And the writing is magnificent. So artful.
Well I’m just assuming! Maybe I’ll read it again. Why not.
A very quick read. You’ll finish it in a couple hours.
Oh books by white men don’t get cancelled — they may get criticized because they are assigned in school far more often than more recent literature by people of color whose literary merit far surpasses them. I hate when those with a lot of privilege claim they are being “cancelled” because someone is criticizing their work or statements. When it is usually people who are far more disadvantaged who get “cancelled” if they challenge those in power.
And often any criticism of white men’s work and challenging how much merit it has is derided as “canceling” them.
My kid was assigned Catcher in the Rye in high school. I remembered loving it as a teen so I assumed he would also really like it. Turned out he didn’t like it very much and was really annoyed by Holden as a character. For reference, the class was also assigned to read Ellison’s Invisible Man and thought it was better.
After reading it again, I had to admit that Catcher in the Rye is overrated as a piece of literature and probably seemed a lot more daring when I was young. But I do agree with LaWanda Eckert that it is a fascinating a look into a world of privilege from the POV of a teen, so I can see the value of still having students reading it.
I still love Nine Stories, however. Nothing wrong with teaching either of those Salinger books, but if someone argued that there are better works of literature written by writers who aren’t white and privileged, I’d have a hard time defending Catcher in the Rye.
I confess I never liked Catcher in the Rye, not as a young person. I thought it was boring. But Salinger fascinated me. Unlike many who seek fame, he fled from it.
I agree, his life is fascinating.
Salinger’s daughter, Margaret Salinger, wrote a memoir of her life, Dream Catcher, that sounds like it is an interesting perspective. And reading about Joyce Maynard, and the hatred she got for simply writing of her experiences, is really enlightening.
My kid thought Holden was just as phony as the people he looked down on, albeit in a different way. Salinger did flee from fame, but on the other hand he had a huge industry of powerful people in academia and publishing and the media who certainly spent a lot of effort and time “protecting” Salinger’s legacy which insured that the image that Salinger wanted the public to have about him would be the one that was promoted. Must have been nice to not seek fame while benefitting from all the privileges that fame gave him.
I loved it when I read and subsequently read the rest of Salinger while in college (not for classes). Source of the one of the greatest outbursts in American literary history: “Jesus H. Christ!”
Cancel culture must be a social media thing because book banning seemingly has always been around. I was warned almost precisely twenty years ago not to use Catcher because of the language and the two suggestive parts when Holden discusses his virginity with a prostitute, and when he awakes to find a man playing with his hair. Nonsense! Great book. I’ve always kept a couple copies on my classroom shelves. Salinger is far from being cancelled.
By the way, speaking of social media, have you ever noticed that social media aren’t really social? And using social media to do social distancing isn’t social either. It’s physical distancing using mostly acrimonious media. Social butterflies are social. The social contract is social. Social democracy is pretty social. Social Security is social. Going to a school social is social. The web is not social. Just had to throw those two cents in there because that word has been bothering me lately.
If you want up learn more about censorship (aka cancel culture), read my book “The Language Police.” Shakespeare was censored. Too bawdy.
Yes, according to my trusty Shakespearean Insults List, Shakespeare was a bawdy, tickle-brained lewdster, a saucy, folly-fallen strumpet. All lewdsters and strumpets write English sonnets in iambic pentameter and heavily influence language and culture, don’t you know… Alexander Pope was right in his satire of literary critics.
Holden would’ve quickly pegged Trump as a major league “phony”. A truly great book now unfortunately intertwined with my memory of John Lennon’s murder.