J.D. Salinger has elevated privacy to a high art in American life. People make pilgrimages to his home in Cornish, New Hampshire hoping to catch a glimpse of the great recluse. Mark Chapman was holding a well-worn copy of “The Catcher in the Rye” when he was arrested after he shot John Lennon. Salinger’s stroke of brilliance wasn’t just to write an angst-ridden coming of age novel that’s been required reading for teenagers for 50 years now.
The genius part was to write very little more, to move to a remote, rural town and never leave it, and under no circumstances to give interviews. The fortress around J.D. Salinger began to crack a few years ago when Joyce Maynard wrote her memoir about living with Salinger when she was 18 and he was in his 50’s. Now his daughter has written a memoir called “Dream Catcher” that just may shatter the Salinger myth once and for all. We’re talking with Margaret Salinger this hour on the Connection.
(Hosted by Christopher Lydon)
Guests:
Margaret A. Salinger, Author and Daugher of J.D. Salinger