Kenneth Slawenski: "J.D. Salinger"
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Kenneth Slawenski: "J.D. Salinger" MS. DIANE REHM
11:06:54
Thanks for joining us, I'm Diane Rehm. The writer J.D. Salinger worked hard at remaining a mystery after catapulting to fame in the early '50s following publication of his novel, ''The Catcher in the Rye.'' Salinger assiduously avoided publicity for the rest of his life. But Kenneth Slawenski who read the book as a teenager and picked it up again later in life was determined to learn all he could about the man who became one of the last century's greatest American writers.
MS. DIANE REHM
11:07:37
In a new biography, he offers a detailed portrait, the man who captured the imagination of generation of readers. The book is called, ''J.D. Salinger: A Life.'' And Kenneth Slawenski joins me in the studio. I hope you will as well. Give us a call on 800-433-8850, send us your e-mail to drshow@wamu.org, send us a tweet or join on Facebook. Good morning to you, Ken. It's good to have you here.
MR. KENNETH SLAWENSKI
11:08:16
Good morning, Diane. Great to be here.
REHM
11:08:19
Talk about your internal experience with J.D. Salinger.
SLAWENSKI
11:08:24
Actually, I'll be 54 in April and it pretty much spans a lifetime from my adolescence until this period now. When you say internal, that's an interesting word because it really is a feeling. You feel Salinger's work. You feel, ''The Catcher in the Rye.'' That’s where the real power is and I first experienced that power when I was -- I would say about 14. I was in junior high school and I read, ''The Catcher in the Rye,'' for the first time, it was mandatory reading.
SLAWENSKI
11:08:57
And I did connect with the character, Holden Caulfield. I really enjoyed the book. I loved the book. In fact, I might have to admit that I really didn't like reading before I read, ''The Catcher in the Rye,'' and that taught me the joy of reading, plain and simple. But if you fast forward many years, too many...
REHM
11:09:14
But before you fast forward.
SLAWENSKI
11:09:17
Certainly.
REHM
11:09:18
Tell me what it was about Holden Caulfield that caught you?
SLAWENSKI
11:09:26
Holden Caulfield seemed to be speaking my innermost feelings. He seemed to be articulating for me what I could not, at 14, articulate for myself.
REHM
11:09:34
Like what?
SLAWENSKI
11:09:36
Angst, trepidation about becoming an adult, phoniness. When you're 14, you are so clued in to the phoniness of especially adults. And Holden was -- he was saying all of these things. He was articulating my feelings for me and that amazed me.
REHM
11:09:57
How did you feel his relationship to friends, to parents, to those around him, how did that connect with you?
SLAWENSKI
11:10:11
When I was 14, that connected in a way that I thought he was right. I said, finally, somebody's saying these things. The connections that he had with friends and parents was exactly where I was coming from at that point in time, too.
REHM
11:10:28
So you put the book aside...
SLAWENSKI
11:10:30
I did.
REHM
11:10:31
...having read it once?
SLAWENSKI
11:10:33
I did, right.
REHM
11:10:35
Now, fast forward.
SLAWENSKI
11:10:36
All right. But in the meantime, I have inject one thing. I enjoyed that book so much, it made such a difference to me in my adolescence, that I kept it for many, many years in the top dresser of my drawer as a memento of my youth. And that book sat there for decades and I took it out when I was 45 and reread, ''The Catcher in the Rye.''
REHM
11:11:05
Why do you think you did?
SLAWENSKI
11:11:08
That's a really good question because -- and it's not one I can answer. I think it's just something that called to me. It was there, I was keeping it for a reason. It’s one of those things that it almost whispering in my ear and I was almost avoiding it. And I felt a little funny at 45 reading, ''The Catcher in the Rye,'' again. I really did. I felt almost, like, well, what is this? Is this my version of midlife crisis? And when I read it, I found that it impressed me even more than it did at 14.
REHM
11:11:45
Same issues?
SLAWENSKI
11:11:47
No, no, not at all. I related to Holden Caulfield all over again, but in different ways. It was as if he as a character had transformed along with me. He had grown along with me. I no longer saw the Holden of teenaged angst and rebellion. I saw a sadder Holden, I saw a more mature Holden. I related to him in an adult way and to me, that was really phenomenal and I wanted to know more about the author who could deliver that kind of a presentation. A book that actually transforms along the years with your life. That's how I felt.
REHM
11:12:23
You know, the idea that resonated with me the first time I read, ''The Catcher in the Rye,'' was life is somehow meaningless.
SLAWENSKI
11:12:41
Yes. Well, that's the question, now where is the answer? That is the question. It's almost a larger question, too. I believe -- Salinger, he served in World War II and he fought in Europe, landed on D-Day. And he fought in Europe until the end of the war, 'til the surrender of the Germans and then he remained on his own accord for another year in Germany.
SLAWENSKI
11:13:18
And what he witnessed there during the war shook him to the core. It changed him fundamentally, profoundly. Not only as an individual, but also as an author. His writings change. And I think that experience is partially embedded in, ''The Catcher in the Rye,'' in the way that you said. The question that Holden asks really is, is it worth it? Is it -- life -- not is life worth it, is the world worth it?
SLAWENSKI
11:13:45
The world worth living in, it's the world that's on trial in, ''The Catcher in the Rye.'' Holden Caulfield's not on trial, he’s putting the world on trial. He’s asking the world, please give me something of value and worth. Show me something of worth so that I can become an adult and feel at least that it's worth living in. And that, I think, comes from the war because when you experience war, you have to ask the fundamental question of, is life worth living after what I've experienced? What I know now about the capabilities of man to commit atrocities, what is life all about? Is it worth living? In a way, in a minor way, Holden asks that very same question.
REHM
11:14:36
Kenneth Slawenski, his new book is, ''J.D. Salinger: A Life.'' And you can join us, 800-433-8850, send us your e-mail to drshow@wamu.org. Kenneth Slawenski is the creator of DeadCaulfields.com, a website founded in 2004 recommended by The New York Times. He's been working on this biography for eight years. It is bizfact that he was in the Second World War, that he did see the horror that the Germans had inflicted and he had the unfinished manuscript, I gather...
SLAWENSKI
11:15:40
Yes, of course. Yes, yes.
REHM
11:15:40
…of, ''The Catcher in the Rye,'' with him. How do you know that?
SLAWENSKI
11:15:45
Isn't that phenomenal? Right before he left, he was stationed in England doing preparation for D-Day. And right before he left for D-Day, he wrote a letter home, you know, to the United States, to his friend and his editor, Whit Burnett, and he told Whit Burnett that he had six chapters of, ''The Catcher in the Rye.'' He didn't call it, ''The Catcher in the Rye,'' at that point. His Holden Caulfield book, he called it.
SLAWENSKI
11:16:13
I have six chapters of the Holden Caulfield book. And he said, No one has seen them. Not even his agent had seen, he said. So he was the only one who had, that was the single copy of six chapters of, ''The Catcher in the Rye.'' He said, I need them with me. I need them. As if he needed them for support. He needed them on his person. So he landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-day with the pages of, ''The Catcher in the Rye,'' on his person. I think that is absolutely amazing.
REHM
11:16:43
And do you have proof that he landed on the beaches of Normandy on D-Day...
SLAWENSKI
11:16:54
Yes. Right.
REHM
11:16:54
...and that he saw those prisoners who had been held in Dachau?
SLAWENSKI
11:17:01
Well, when I say Dachau, I'm talking about the Dachau concentration camp system. At the end of the war, Salinger's unit entered an area of Bavaria that was absolutely infested with sub-camps of Dachau. These were smaller compounds of prisoners and they were kept to work in Dachau proper. These camps are unavoidable. His unit liberated a good half dozen of these camps.
SLAWENSKI
11:17:31
Some of the names are obscure. For example, Salinger's daughter wrote that he had mentioned of a concentration camp that he had liberated, help to liberate, and she didn't recall the name. I don't blame her for that because they are obscure names. Some of them, Ohrdruf and Horgau, she wouldn't have remembered these. As far as J.D. goes, we do have an eyewitness account of him landing on the second wave there.
REHM
11:18:04
From another soldier?
SLAWENSKI
11:18:06
Exactly, from another soldier from the 12th Infantry Division, yes.
REHM
11:18:09
So you have been able in this book to gather information that no one has had?
SLAWENSKI
11:18:20
I have some, yes.
REHM
11:18:20
Up to now.
SLAWENSKI
11:18:21
Yes.
REHM
11:18:22
Ken Slawenski, his new biography is called, ''J.D. Salinger: A Life.'' I know that we have many people waiting on the lines. Elizabeth, Dave, Sue, we'll try to get to you as quickly as possible.
REHM
11:20:04
Welcome back. That mysterious figure, J.D. Salinger, has been illuminated in Kenneth Slawenski's new biography called simply, "J.D. Salinger: A Life." At the heart is, of course, Holden Caulfield and, "The Catcher in the Rye," a book that has been with us, on and off bestseller lists for the last 50 years. Tell us about J.D. Salinger before or after he got to D-Day with Holden Caulfield next to his bosom. When did he marry?
SLAWENSKI
11:20:53
Actually, Salinger's first wife, he married was right directly after the war. He married a German woman named Sylvia Welter.
REHM
11:21:01
And?
SLAWENSKI
11:21:02
He remained in Germany with her for a number of months and then he took an extraordinary decision of bringing her back home to live in New York with his mother and father. That wasn't going to happen. He had written home, actually, that Sylvia was French and she was a sweet little French girl. And that's, I assume, what his parents were expecting. Now, his father was Jewish and his mother doted on him. Jerry was, for all of her life, mama's little boy. She wasn't going to take well to anyone. When Sylvia and Jerry got off the boat...
REHM
11:21:47
Jerry being J.D. Salinger.
SLAWENSKI
11:21:49
Jerry Salinger. Right, right. I'm sorry. Yes, at that point in time, yeah, I think of him as still being Jerry. When Sylvia and Jerry got off of the boat from Europe -- now, he had been overseas for more than a year and she opened her mouth and a German accent popped out. I'm sure they were flabbergasted. She...
REHM
11:22:13
When you say I'm sure they were flabbergasted...
SLAWENSKI
11:22:15
Right.
REHM
11:22:17
...is there any written indication of that?
SLAWENSKI
11:22:20
This is my supposition. Here is the story. And when I say story -- "story," the story is that she lived there for a couple of months in the Manhattan apartment on Park Avenue with the parents. And one morning (laugh) during breakfast, they all came, they all sat down to the breakfast table and the napkins were on top of the plates. And they picked up the napkin and put them on their laps. And under Sylvia's napkin was a ticket home. Sylvia returned to Europe. They were married for all of eight months. She filed for annulment and that was the end of that marriage.
REHM
11:23:05
How do you know that?
SLAWENSKI
11:23:07
I did talk to Sylvia's friends shortly after her death and she died in 2007. Interestingly, she returned to the United States in the '50s and she lived here for the rest of her life. She married someone in Michigan and she settled in North Carolina.
REHM
11:23:29
But no further contact with "Jerry."
SLAWENSKI
11:23:32
No further contact, as far as I know. There is an account given by Salinger's daughter in her book. She wrote a book, a memoir of herself, with a large portion about her father in 2000. And that account -- I think the year was 1972. She said she recalled that she was walking with her father in the woods where they went to the mailbox and there was a letter there from Sylvia. And she recalls the name distinctly. And instead of opening the letter, her father just ripped it up.
REHM
11:24:16
Who is Sylvia's successor?
SLAWENSKI
11:24:21
Sylvia's successor (laugh) -- that's a nice term, is Claire Douglas. Claire Douglas was born in Britain. She spent the war in the United States in a foster program. She was a child. They were afraid that the home in London would be bombed, so they sent her to the United States to -- she went to a series of foster homes, actually, her and her brother. And she very much resembles, if you've ever read Salinger's story, "For Esmé - with Love and Squalor," she's Esmé. She is Esmé almost incarnate. It is phenomenal.
REHM
11:24:56
How did they meet?
SLAWENSKI
11:24:57
They met at a party. They met at a party of a mutual friend in 1950. So Salinger was just about to release, "The Catcher in the Rye." He was just about to become famous and he met this demure young girl. She was 17 at the time. And he fell instantly -- they had a real love affair.
REHM
11:25:18
And married how soon thereafter?
SLAWENSKI
11:25:21
They didn't marry until 1955.
REHM
11:25:25
So a fairly long…
SLAWENSKI
11:25:28
It was, yes.
REHM
11:25:28
...interim.
SLAWENSKI
11:25:29
Yes. It's interesting in a way because of her age, I think. Salinger, he tried to restrain himself.
REHM
11:25:38
How old would he have been?
SLAWENSKI
11:25:40
Well, he would've been 31.
REHM
11:25:42
And she's 17.
SLAWENSKI
11:25:43
Right. And she's 17. You see the age difference. Now, the rumor -- in 1950, that was a little scandalous and he was very aware what people would say. And he tried his best to cool the relationship down. And there were periods when they did split up where they didn't see each other, but always, they seemed to get back together again. At that point in his life, in the early '50s, he really -- she was exactly what he needed at that point in time and vice versa. The same for her.
REHM
11:26:22
Now, back to, "Catcher and the Rye." His New Yorker turned it down.
SLAWENSKI
11:26:29
Yes.
REHM
11:26:30
His first publisher...
SLAWENSKI
11:26:31
That's his beloved New Yorker.
REHM
11:26:32
...turned it down.
SLAWENSKI
11:26:33
Right. Yes.
REHM
11:26:35
Okay.
SLAWENSKI
11:26:35
Yes, incredible.
REHM
11:26:36
Why? Why did they turn it down?
SLAWENSKI
11:26:39
This is the -- I can't answer that question. You know, I wouldn't have turned it down. Would we -- I don't know too many people who would've turned it down, but, you know, much the chagrin, yes, they did. The interesting thing about The New Yorker is it was -- he presented it -- he went to The New Yorker to print and excerpt and he thought that it was going to receive absolutely great reception at The New Yorker. All of his friends were there, he had been working with The New Yorker for a number of years. He was very popular there at the magazine. He sold a lot of New Yorker magazines, J.D. Salinger.
SLAWENSKI
11:27:19
And he got a letter from his editor at The New Yorker who said that, we received the manuscript and we didn't like it. And they weren't going to publish a word of it. And it also came with a choice lecture on his writing style. They thought that the character Holden Caulfield and Phoebe Caulfield and the entire Caulfield family, they weren't believable. And they scolded Salinger on top of that. I mean, this is hurt on top of hurt.
REHM
11:27:49
You've seen these letters.
SLAWENSKI
11:27:50
Yes, yes, I have. They're scolding him for not -- they saw too much of Salinger in the manuscript. Now, he had been writing that book for 10 years. For 10 years, he put into it, well before he had any association with The New Yorker. Now, they wanted the book to conform to The New Yorker etiquette on writing, which was a sublimination of the author himself. And J.D. Salinger was not about to rewrite, "The Catcher in the Rye," to please The New Yorker, but he was very deeply hurt, without a doubt.
REHM
11:28:24
And the first publisher?
SLAWENSKI
11:28:26
The first publisher he had sent it to, it was accepted by Hawker Bryce for publication. And he made a...
REHM
11:28:33
But that was not the first publisher...
SLAWENSKI
11:28:36
No, no.
REHM
11:28:37
...to which he sent it. He sent it to another publisher who initially turned it down.
SLAWENSKI
11:28:43
Hawker Bryce initially turned it down. What he did was he established an agreement with Hawker Bryce in 1949, a year and a half before the eventual release of, "The Catcher in the Rye." And he sealed the deal with a verbal handshake. Now, when he did finally finish the manuscript and he sent it off to Hawker Bryce, the individual with whom he made the deal sent it to his boss and -- was Robert Jerar (sp?).
SLAWENSKI
11:29:22
And Jerar didn't understand the novel. He -- his answer was, is Holden Caulfield supposed to be crazy? And when they read that and when Salinger read that interpretation, well, it was clear that this -- Hawker Bryce was not going to publish that book and they didn't. They asked him to rewrite the book. He was furious. He was absolutely furious. But he had a good agent in Dorothy Olding and Dorothy Olding sent the book to Little, Brown and Company in Boston and they took it immediately and they did wind up publishing it.
REHM
11:29:50
How quickly did it become a best seller?
SLAWENSKI
11:29:55
I would say about -- oh, a bestseller? It hit the number four spot on The New York Times Best Seller list, but it never hit number one. That's interesting. It's probably the -- except for, "Nine Stories," I have to say that. His last two books, "Franny and Zooey" and, "Raise High the Roof Beams," were both instantly number one best sellers, but, "The Catcher in the Rye," never was.
REHM
11:30:17
So from the time he became famous...
SLAWENSKI
11:30:23
Yes.
REHM
11:30:23
...as a writer...
SLAWENSKI
11:30:24
Right.
REHM
11:30:25
...revered as a writer...
SLAWENSKI
11:30:26
Revered, okay.
REHM
11:30:27
...somehow that so turned him off.
SLAWENSKI
11:30:33
If you look at the -- even, "The Catcher in the Rye," 1951, here he had been, as I said, writing the book for 10 years. All he wanted to do is see this book published. And Jerry Salinger, the earlier -- when I say Jerry, the earlier Jerry Salinger, before the war, was tremendously ambitious. He was tremendously convinced that he was a great writer and he was going to set the world upside down with this his writings.
REHM
11:30:56
He had lots of confidence.
SLAWENSKI
11:30:58
Without a doubt, without a doubt he did. And now the time is here. It's finally here, it's come. He can make his name, he can finally publish that book he's been working on for 10 years. And what does he do? He turns around and he says, I don't want publicity, I won't have my picture on it. I don't -- no speaking tours. Well, it's incredible. Nowadays, that book wouldn't be published.
REHM
11:31:27
So why do you think he turned away?
SLAWENSKI
11:31:31
Well, he turned away -- it was actually -- it was a progression, but you can really see that begins in earnest in 1951 with the production of, "The Catcher in the Rye." He was entering that year and the year that he was finishing Catcher in 1950, he was entering a new phase of -- in his philosophy, he left the war with really -- he had embarked on his spiritual journey and he was investigating different forms of primarily Eastern philosophies and religions.
REHM
11:32:07
How do you know this?
SLAWENSKI
11:32:10
Because he wrote of it. He wrote of it constantly. Really, it's almost impossible to understand the man from 1951 on without understanding the values that he was gaining through these Asian philosophies. He found this book, "The Gospel Sri Krishna." Okay? Now, he was giving this book to everyone. Anyone who'd listen, read this book, read this book. The thing is tremendous, it's enormous. It takes you years to get through. And just to understand its -- perhaps a lifetime. And he was so turned on by this book and he just set to adopting every facet of its doctrine.
SLAWENSKI
11:32:58
And one of those doctrines is ego detachment, is that Sri Krishna taught in no uncertain terms that we must work because God gave us the talent and the ability to work, but that we are not due the benefits, that the fruits of our labor belong to God. And Salinger believed in that also and that starts to kick in in 1951. And you see that when he says, no, take my picture off of the back of the book. No, I don't want too much publicity.
REHM
11:33:38
Kenneth Slawenski, the new book, a biography of J.D. Salinger, and you're listening to "The Diane Rehm Show." We have many callers. Let's open the phones, 800-433-8850. First to Cincinnati, Ohio. Good morning, Elizabeth.
ELIZABETH
11:34:03
Good morning. I read this book as a young teenager and I'm now in my 70s and I have never understood the title as it relates to the story. I don't know what the title means.
SLAWENSKI
11:34:18
Hi, Elizabeth, how are you? (laugh) The title is in the book. There's a poem by Robert Burns, "A Catcher in the Rye." And what happens is Holden Caulfield, he misquotes the poem. He says, when a body catch a body coming through the rye. Where actually the poem says, when a body meet a body coming through the rye. And that really is a primary essence of Holden's problem throughout the book. He needs to learn the distinction between meeting someone and catching someone. Holden wants to catch children as they fall from innocence. His lesson is it requires more than that.
SLAWENSKI
11:35:06
Holden Caulfield, he's not quite an adult yet. He's almost an adult, all right. He's not ready to catch children. He still has too much of a child in himself. He needs to connect with other people in order to find -- to complete his own journey first and I think that's part of the meaning behind the title.
REHM
11:35:31
Before we take any additional callers, I want to ask you specifically...
SLAWENSKI
11:35:38
Yes.
REHM
11:35:39
...what new information, new sources you have brought to this biography...
SLAWENSKI
11:35:48
Yes.
REHM
11:35:48
...that have not appeared before.
SLAWENSKI
11:35:51
Right. Well, to speak to a number of people. But primarily, I'd like to think that more than anyone else I actually almost interviewed J.D. Salinger. It's probably through his letters -- I've poured over hundreds of them and many of them have never been reported on before.
REHM
11:36:07
Have they been shared with you by individuals close to him?
SLAWENSKI
11:36:13
Some of them I had to track down and they are available to researchers. Some I did get the first dibs on. For example, the Morgan letters. There were 11 letters that Salinger wrote to his friend.
REHM
11:36:27
To his friend.
SLAWENSKI
11:36:30
His friend -- I'm sorry, Michael Mitchell. And Michael Mitchell did the original cover work for, "The Catcher in the Rye." That's his image, the ramped horse. And they were friends for many years. And I did get first dibs on reading and evaluating his letters and it's a wonderful stash. It really is a wonderful stash of letters because you get the entire arc of the relationship from 1951 to the '90s -- to the early '90s.
REHM
11:36:59
Other sources?
SLAWENSKI
11:37:02
Whatever's in different archives, I just dug and I dug. I found a -- this is funny -- I found a poem that he wrote. You know, so proud to find this poem because as far as I know, no one has even known that it existed. It's just it was in the papers of his poetry professor at Columbia. And again, as far as I know, no one's even known that Salinger took poetry in Columbia, but it was a terrible poem.
REHM
11:37:31
Kenneth Slawenski and we're talking about J.D. Salinger. We'll take a short break and more of your calls, your e-mails when we return.
REHM
11:40:03
And here's an e-mail from Katherine, who says, "Like your guest, I keep a copy of, 'Catcher in the Rye,' in the top drawer of my bedside table...
SLAWENSKI
11:40:14
That's great.
REHM
11:40:15
...and reread it frequently. I was born in 1955, deeply affected by the book. I was and still am in love with Holden Caulfield. I went to a girl's school and dated a boy at a boy's school who reminded me of Holden, when he told me to cut his hair above his eyebrows, he shaved his eyebrows off. My question is why has no one made another movie of this wonderful book? I believe there's an old black and white movie made decades ago, but don't you think we could have a modern version?"
SLAWENSKI
11:41:02
You know, there's never been a movie of, "The Catcher in the Rye."
REHM
11:41:04
I didn't think so.
SLAWENSKI
11:41:05
No, Salinger would never allow it, no. He would never -- he hated any image of Holden. In a way, isn't he right, though? I mean...
REHM
11:41:15
Let's talk for a moment...
SLAWENSKI
11:41:17
Yes.
REHM
11:41:18
...about Joyce Maynard.
SLAWENSKI
11:41:19
All right.
REHM
11:41:21
Did you talk with her? And by the way, we should say she's written...
SLAWENSKI
11:41:27
Right.
REHM
11:41:27
...her own biography.
SLAWENSKI
11:41:28
Right. Her own memoir, yes, in 1998, "At Home in the World." I didn't talk to Joyce, no. And Joyce appeared on the stage at a point in time when Salinger wasn't producing any writings. And I think that to cover those years as if in depth to the extent that I covered the years that he was producing writing would be only to tell half of the story, because so much of Salinger's story are in his works. His works were his life. And he's inseparable from the stories that he wrote, so I'd like to leave some things perhaps for another book and that period of his life. Hopefully if we do see new writings and I'm hoping that we do...
REHM
11:42:15
Really?
SLAWENSKI
11:42:15
Oh, yeah, sure, sure.
REHM
11:42:17
You think that he was still writing?
SLAWENSKI
11:42:20
Oh, I know it, yes. He spoke of it constantly for decades, yes.
REHM
11:42:25
Even though he did not wish to publish one more word.
SLAWENSKI
11:42:31
In his lifetime, he decided not to, correct, yes.
REHM
11:42:34
In his lifetime.
SLAWENSKI
11:42:35
Exactly. Right, but he did leave these things to his estate, which consist now of his widow and his son and it's up to them. He left it up to them what to do with it and he said as much.
REHM
11:42:48
And what about his daughter?
SLAWENSKI
11:42:51
His daughter is not in the estate. The estate -- when I said the estate, I have no idea what's in the will. All right. He set up a trust. Salinger, right before his death, set up a trust and that went to his wife and to his son. And in that trust are all of the copyrights to all of his works, all of his published works, including ,"The Catcher in the Rye." That's quite something, really.
REHM
11:43:18
How long was he married to his second wife?
SLAWENSKI
11:43:24
His second wife, they were married for about 11, 12 years.
REHM
11:43:29
And was there a third wife?
SLAWENSKI
11:43:31
There's a third wife, yes, yes.
REHM
11:43:32
And it is she and the son...
SLAWENSKI
11:43:35
Exactly. Exactly. And excuse me for not jumping right in and not establishing that. Yes, yes, he married his third wife late '80s and she -- so they had a very long relationship and...
REHM
11:43:50
But he did not live with her at the end, did he?
SLAWENSKI
11:43:54
Yes, he did. Yes, they lived together, yes.
REHM
11:43:56
To the end?
SLAWENSKI
11:43:58
To the end, yes.
REHM
11:43:59
We never saw her.
SLAWENSKI
11:44:01
We never saw her. Yes, yes, low key, not really -- not trying to be low key, just these rural people and small town people and they lived their lives accordingly.
REHM
11:44:17
And they were protected within that small town.
SLAWENSKI
11:44:20
They were very much protected. See, Cornish, N.H. has -- always had an affection for Salinger and they protected his privacy. You know, let's face it, Cornish, you're talking about a (word?), what, 1500 people, really no downtown. So the only reason you're in Cornish, unless you live in Cornish, is to seek out J.D. Salinger's house.
REHM
11:44:42
Did he know the number of schools and libraries had banned, "The Catcher and the Rye?"
SLAWENSKI
11:44:50
He did. Yes, he did.
REHM
11:44:51
What was his reaction, do we know?
SLAWENSKI
11:44:53
Yes, we do. Salinger said that he was aware that a lot of schools were beginning in the early '60s to ban the teaching and the reading of, "The Catcher in the Rye," by their students and he said it pained him because actually his quote was -- he had a previous quote that his best friends were children. And it pained him to know that his book would be kept out of their reach. But he felt that he had a greater obligation to the work that he was working on at that time and he needed to let go of his hold on, it's almost an ironic statement, previous works, including, "The Catcher in the Rye." Of course, that didn't turn out to be true until his -- you know, until the day of his death, he was still holding onto, "The Catcher in the Rye."
REHM
11:45:40
Let's go to Islip, N.Y. Good morning, Daniel, you're on the air.
DANIEL
11:45:47
Good morning. I have a quick comment and a question.
REHM
11:45:49
Sure.
DANIEL
11:45:49
Until your biographer, Kenneth, there revealed it on air, I had no idea there was a concentration in Altdorf. I was actually stationed in Bitburg, Germany and I lived in Altdorf on Von Hastrasa (sp?)...
SLAWENSKI
11:46:01
Right.
DANIEL
11:46:02
...which is located halfway between Spangdahlem Air Base and Bitburg Air Base and I was completely amazed that there had been a concentration camp. There was no clue. I had no clue of that. My question, however, is a lot of the critics and reviewers of the book, "Catcher in the Rye," speak of an undertone of Holden Caulfield's budding homosexuality. And I was wondering if the biographer knows was that actually intentional by Salinger or is that something -- a tone that was gleaned by the reviewers and the readers?
SLAWENSKI
11:46:38
Actually, that's a surprise to me. I haven't heard that line of thought, frankly. He did -- Salinger did produce a story previous to, "The Catcher in the Rye," with Holden's character in it and he did try to submit that story for publication to The New Yorker as a separate short story. And he did receive a rejection letter concerning that story in which his editors questioned whether or not Holden Caulfield was homosexual, but that is the only time I've heard any reference like that.
REHM
11:47:12
Interesting. Hope that answers it, Daniel.
DANIEL
11:47:16
Thank you. Yes, it did.
REHM
11:47:17
Thanks. To Jackson, Mich. Good morning, Annie.
ANNIE
11:47:22
Good morning. For some reason, when I was reading Holden at first, he just aggravated me.
SLAWENSKI
11:47:29
All right. Yeah.
ANNIE
11:47:29
I don't know. I didn't like him, but I fell in love with the Glass family. When I read, "Perfect Day for Bananafish," I don't know, I feel like I cried for the next five years.
SLAWENSKI
11:47:38
Wow.
ANNIE
11:47:39
I just feel -- I have always felt like they were some -- I was somehow an invisible member of that family and I...
SLAWENSKI
11:47:46
Wow.
ANNIE
11:47:47
...I still go back and read those stories, again and again.
SLAWENSKI
11:47:51
I thank you for that. I mean, that strikes me because normally, it's the other way around. A lot of readers don't like the Glass stories and they love, "The Catcher in the Rye." It's the rare reader really who -- where it's the other way around. Holden irritated you, huh?
ANNIE
11:48:10
I thought he was just kind of a pompous know it all.
SLAWENSKI
11:48:13
Right.
ANNIE
11:48:13
I mean, this is when I was 15. And like you, you know, you always go back and reread them and learn a lot about yourself by rereading them, but I didn't like him (laugh).
SLAWENSKI
11:48:23
But he struck a chord.
REHM
11:48:24
He clearly struck a chord.
SLAWENSKI
11:48:26
All right.
REHM
11:48:27
Thanks for calling, Annie. You also write that Salinger was deeply in love with Oona Chaplin.
SLAWENSKI
11:48:38
That was his first great love, yes, without a doubt, Oona Chaplin. The daughter of Eugene O'Neill, Oona O'Neill. Salinger was 22 -- 21 and 22 and Oona was 17. And she was just vivacious, she was just beautiful and he met her down at the Jersey shore and he fell instantly in love with her. Now, the problem -- they did date for awhile. I don't know that Oona was really romantically interested in Salinger, but they did date in the '40s right before the war. I mean a date, if you held hands, that was a big thing. So to say date, you know, but she left him for Charlie Chaplin. She moved out to California, got involved with Charlie Chaplin almost immediately and she broke Salinger's heart. She broke Jerry's heart.
SLAWENSKI
11:49:28
The thing is that really what struck me about the breakup of that relationship was he read it in the newspapers because the newspapers were screaming that Chaplin, who they had it out for at that time, now he's dating the 17-year-old girl, daughter...
REHM
11:49:46
Because how old was Chaplin at the time?
SLAWENSKI
11:49:48
Chaplin was in his mid 50s. He was old enough to be Oona's father. And here is Oona, she's famous for being the daughter of Eugene O'Neill and it was like the newspapers were screaming, hands off, hands off. And Salinger was humiliated. It just humiliated. Here he was in love with this girl. He talked to everyone about her and they must've looked at him with the saddest of eyes.
REHM
11:50:14
To Baltimore, Md. Good morning, Dave.
DAVE
11:50:18
Good morning. I'd like to get Ken's comment admiring Salinger's privacy and integrity and Holden -- what Holden said is never more true, but one reaction to the phoniness might be to change things for the better. And I think Mark David Chapman, using Holden Caulfield, killed John Lennon who actually tried to change things for the better. What do you think Salinger would say about that?
SLAWENSKI
11:50:46
Salinger said publicly nothing about the Lennon assassination, but as human beings, we can imagine that it had a terrible effect upon him, that his great creation was used in such a despicable way. Mark David Chapman, he was a sick human being and he interpreted, "The Catcher in the Rye," in the sickest of ways. To blame Salinger in any way, shape or form for his crime is an injustice.
REHM
11:51:22
You know, it seems to me that what you are saying is that the heart of, "The Catcher in the Rye," and perhaps the stories that came later, really came out of J.D. Salinger's experience in the Second World War, that that is what changed him.
SLAWENSKI
11:51:49
The war did change him, of course, because it did set him on a spiritual journey. And I -- what I do is I've used Salinger's life as almost steps along the spiritual path. You can measure Salinger's spiritual progression, his evolution as you read his stories if you do it chronological order. And when you put the episodes of his life up against those stories, you see not only his philosophy and the events of his life, but you begin to learn about the man. You begin to become closer to Salinger himself and this is what I've tried to do and hopefully read his book, come away with a greater understanding of Salinger.
REHM
11:52:33
Here's an e-mail from Barbara, who says, "No one ever seems to mention what I see as the most significant aspect to, 'The Catcher in the Rye. That is that Holden is a teenager whose little brother is dead and 'The Catcher' is written at the suggestion of Holden's older brother, a writer from a sanatorium. It's a book of grief. Holden is writing a catharsis of his terrible grief."
SLAWENSKI
11:53:07
Yes. She's completely correct, completely right. And when I talk about my two -- the two times that I read, "The Catcher in the Rye," I'm talking about at 14 and 45. I didn't see that grief in the first reading. I certainly did in the second. I didn't even recognize Holden's brother, Allie, that he's dominated by the death of Allie. He's trying to come to terms with the death of Allie and living in this world that could take his pure brother, at the age of 10, away from him. He doesn't know what to make of this world. He's left to grow up in this world and Allie's been taken away from him. I didn't see that grief, that entire conflict, until I read it at 45.
REHM
11:53:53
And you're listening to "The Diane Rehm Show." Let's go to Goshen, Ind. Good morning, Greg.
GREG
11:54:02
Good morning, Diane. How are you doing?
REHM
11:54:03
I'm good. Thanks.
GREG
11:54:04
Oh, that's good to know. Yeah, I was going to comment that J.D. Salinger had hit upon a vibe that most authors strive for. It's the every man vibe that brings people into reading.
SLAWENSKI
11:54:18
Right, right. Yeah, exactly, exactly. If we talk about Salinger -- tomorrow will be the first anniversary of his death. And I've been thinking lately what his legacy should be. And I really think that it is in, "The Catcher in the Rye." If you think about it, every year millions of young people worldwide are really -- they're inspired to literature because they read, "The Catcher in the Rye." And that should be Salinger's legacy. The point I'd like to make here, and I think I've tried to embed into my book, is that he gave us a great gift and we can't really appreciate the gift without appreciating also the gift giver.
REHM
11:54:59
You say that the insight that Holden Caulfield finds in Central Park is the same that finally soothes Salinger's reaction to the war. What was that?
SLAWENSKI
11:55:14
That the world really is worth living in.
REHM
11:55:17
But it's also, don't ever tell anybody anything.
SLAWENSKI
11:55:23
Yes.
REHM
11:55:23
If you do, you'll start missing everybody.
SLAWENSKI
11:55:26
And Diane, if I told you that I knew the exact meaning of that line, I would be lying. There's always going to be things in, "The Catcher in the Rye," that we don't know. See, the ambiguity of, "The Catcher in the Rye," that returns readers to it, that really is its glory.
REHM
11:55:42
And the 14-year-old boy who read that book, how have you been affected by plunging for eight years into the life of J.D. Salinger?
SLAWENSKI
11:56:02
My life's not the same. That's an excellent question. I don't think I've really dealt with that. I don't think I've really dealt with it fully because it's still something that's unfolding for me. It was really an amazing -- when you examine anyone's life to the extent that I've examined Salinger's, you need to reexamine your own life at the same time. So it really is -- it has been for the eight years a series of epiphanies, it really has personal epiphanies and just revelations about literature and about what makes us human beings?
SLAWENSKI
11:56:34
What do we owe each other? What do we owe Salinger because he gave us, "The Catcher in the Rye?" Do you we owe him anything? What does Salinger owe us? I mean, the attitude has been for so many years that there was this simmering resentment because he stopped publishing in 1965, that Salinger, he owed us more. He owed us more? Hasn't he given us enough?
REHM
11:57:01
Kenneth Slawenski, his new biography is titled, "J.D. Salinger: A Life." Thank you so much for being here. And thanks for listening, I'm Diane Rehm.
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