the young folks

just about everyone has read the book the catcher and the rye at some point in their lives, likely in high school or through some soul searching moment in college. everybody loves it, it's a great book. but what i find more intriguing is the man behind the book. a couple of years ago i came across an old publication at my moms house on a dusty book shelf of 'the complete uncollected short stories of j.d. Salinger; vol 1'.  i don't know much about how books were printed back when but it looks hand typed and is only put together by two staples... really neat. anyway, i read about how Salinger passed on a couple months back and i pulled out this copy of the book and began to read. a little research later i found that the ‘vol:1 & 2’ had somehow been stolen by a young man in Berkeley where he proceeded to distribute them to a couple of bookstores, eventually spreading through to chicago, new york, and beyond. in the article i read, it said that the copies sold like "hot-cakes" and that everyone wanted a copy. it makes me wonder how my mom (or dad for that matter) attained their copy.

in his first interview in 20 years Salinger appeared distraught at the news that these stories had been released, and remained fiercely protective that his writings remain in the privacy of his home. a pone his death people wondered whether his writings would finally make there way out of his vault and onto book store shelves. while i crave the very idea of reading more Holden Caulfield inspirations there is something important and sacred about abiding to the wishes of the dead. there is something also very special about the man that purely and honestly just wrote for his own personal pleasure. Anyway… I was thinking about that today… what people do just for themselves and want only for themselves.

"There is a marvelous peace in not publishing. It's peaceful. Still. Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy. I like to write. I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure."J.D. Salinger