The pages did not simply represent the story written, but rather the turmoil and the resilience of the author. It represented who Salinger was…. This is the story of why The Catcher in the Rye, one of the most infamous literary works, was never adapted into a movie.
JD Salinger began writing The Catch in the Rye in , or at least, that was when he first spoke about it. In his early 20s, Salinger was an aspiring writer. Having completed a writing course with American writer, Whit Burnett, he had a lot of momentum, as many young writers do. Salinger wanted to become financially stable and maybe even famous. In those early years, he even told Burnett that he was eager to sell the film rights to his work so he could ensure that stability.
He was 22 when he met her and she was A year later they were officially dating and he joined her at the pinnacle of the social ladder in New York City, attending some of the most elite parties in the country. Salinger was uncomfortable at these gatherings. He disliked the company — those pretentious socialites with their entitlement and their faux humility — those people were phonies. He would be hot and then cold. At times, he would show affection and then in a blink he would be stand-offish.
And with a history of being neglected by her work-focused father, Eugene, she found the attention from a much older man, Charlie Chaplin. Jilted and heart-broken, Salinger sent her letters after she wedded a man 36 years her elder, criticizing her. He was hurt, and the pain lingered. The s was an intense time for Salinger as he began to navigate the world as a published writer.
Each publication gave him a little bit of hope — although they came few and far in between — but even with the successes nothing elevated him to the level he wanted to be. Salinger was drafted and sent off to war where he literally went through hell and back. With his proficiency in multiple languages French and Italian , he served as an interrogator. Yet he never stopped being a writer during those dangerous times. Members of his counter-intelligence team could still recall Salinger writing, even once when they were at risk of enemy fire.
Witnessing the death of many friends and the horrors of the holocaust aftermath, Salinger was hospitalized for post-traumatic stress after the war ended. Upon returning to America from World War 2 in , he brought with him back a wife, Sylvia Welter — a former Nazi Party member — and his writing, a work in progress.
Holden Caulfield remained his closest companion. In , Salinger sought help from his old instructor, Whit Burnett, in an effort to get a collection of short stories published. And in that, Salinger disengaged with Burnett — as he now had a tendency to do with the people in his life.
Life ebbed and flowed for Salinger, and in , his short story entitled Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut was published in The New Yorker. Movie producer, Samuel Goldwyn purchased the film rights to the story, promising Salinger the career advancement that he had been yearning. Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut was a dialogue-heavy story, and with that being the case had to be rewritten significantly for the film. In hindsight, Salinger would have wanted it to be a stage production, but the allure of the silver screens was too great.
My Foolish Heart was very poorly received to the shock of Salinger, who had uncharacteristically relinquished all controls to Samuel Goldwyn when the producer bought the rights. According to the critics, the movie was melodramatic and full of the typical soap-opera cliches. This gave Salinger, a writer already lacking confidence, another significant blow, leaving a bruise that would not fade. It received its fair share of positive reviews but would end up being one of the most influential novels of its generation for negative reasons.
While many critics enjoyed the book, they found that the character of Holden Caulfield himself was immoral. By the late s, the story of Holden Caulfield represented a group of brooding adolescence, which was coined The Catcher Cult. A rise against the novel began to form as those who upheld Christian morals found the page novel to be a threat. This was enough to get the book condemned in many high schools and libraries across America. By , The Catcher in the Rye was the most censored book of its time and will continue to be one of the most challenged books for decades to come.
Nevertheless, the novel sold over 65 million copies and rocketed Salinger into the limelight. In as early as , Salinger stopped interacting with the public and by , he stopped publishing his works — even though, he continued to write regularly, hiding away from his family to do so.
Why did Salinger stop publishing? Or a house. Stradlater was always doing that. He wanted you to think that the only reason he was lousy at writing compositions was because he stuck all the commas in the wrong place. God, how I hate that stuff! Nevertheless, he sits down to write a composition for the absent Don Juan:. It was a very descriptive subject. It really was. He was left-handed. The thing that was descriptive about it, though, was that he had poems written all over the fingers and the pocket and everywhere.
In green ink. He got leukemia and died when we were up in Maine, on July 18, He was two years younger than I was, but he was about fifty times as intelligent. He was terrifically intelligent. His teachers were always writing letters to my mother, telling her what a pleasure it was having a boy like Allie in their class. They really meant it. He was also the nicest, in lots of ways. He never got mad at anybody.
I was only thirteen, and they were going to have me psychoanalyzed and all, because I broke all the windows in the garage. I slept in the garage the night he died, and I broke all the goddam windows with my fist, just for the hell of it.
Sitting in his hotel room in New York, Holden feels he is sunk, and he starts talking to Allie. Hurry up. I did. By the time Stradlater returns from his date with Jane, Holden is sure that he has slept with her, and Stradlater helps him to think so, without being actually caddish. Stradlater asks for the composition; he is furious when he reads it, because it is about a baseball glove rather than a room or a house. Holden tears the composition up. He has a fight with Stradlater and gets a bloody nose.
Holden goes to say goodbye to Mr. Spencer, his nice old history teacher. It worries the boy that while his teacher is saying edifying valedictory things to him, he becomes acutely concerned about the winter quarters of the ducks in the Central Park lagoon. Magee, who moved to Sign up now to learn about This Day in History straight from your inbox.
On July 16, , President George W. Bush announces his plan for strengthening homeland security in the wake of the shocking September 11, , terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.
In the immediate aftermath of the More than 1, people are killed when a 7. Jeffrey MacDonald stands trial in North Carolina for the murder of his wife and children nearly 10 years before.
Captain MacDonald, an army doctor stationed at Fort Bragg, made an emergency call to military police in the early morning hours of February 17, The draft riots enter their fourth day in New York City in response to the Enrollment Act, which was enacted on March 3, The British fort on the Crowned in , Nicholas was neither trained nor inclined to rule, which did not help the autocracy he sought to preserve among a Live TV.
This Day In History. History Vault. World War II.
0コメント