Beaks here...

"Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody."

J.D. Salinger, arguably the most influential writer of the second half of the twentieth century, passed away on Wednesday, January 27th, 2010, at the age of ninety-one. He left an indelible imprint on the culture with his first published novel, THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, and became a mythic, wildly idealized figure when he withdrew from public life in 1953. He later renounced the act of publication, claiming that he wanted only to write for himself - which led his admirers to agonize over the many, potentially brilliant new works that were, page by page, traveling straight from the typewriter to the drawer. Some refused to respect Salinger's privacy; this usually resulted in bitter litigation.

Now that Salinger is gone, it is only natural to wonder whether his estate will allow these private works to go public - or whether they'll continue to withhold the film rights to all he did publish. Nothing I've read today indicates that they are leaning one way or another. I doubt I'm alone in fervently hoping that there is never a film of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE; it remains one of the few literary classics high school students can't cheat their way around by watching some Hollywood bastardization. Also, the track record for transferring twentieth-century American masterpieces to the screen is, to put it charitably, spotty (see THE GREAT GATSBY, SISTER CARRIE*, THE SHELTERING SKY, CATCH-22, SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE, PORTNOY'S COMPLAINT, REVOLUTIONARY ROAD, RABBIT RUN, THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES, etc.). Please leave THE CATCHER IN THE RYE to our imagination.

On another movie note, the character of Terence Mann played by James Earl Jones in FIELD OF DREAMS was, in W.P. Kinsella's novel SHOELESS JOE, a fictionalized version of J.D. Salinger.

My apologies for the delay in acknowledging the passing of Salinger. For a much more thorough account of the author's life, head on over to The New York Times.

If you've got a New Yorker subscription, Salinger's short stories are available to read online.

For more on a potential movie adaptation of THE CATCHER IN THE RYE, check out this WSJ blog entry from Steven Kurutz. By the way, while I agree in theory with Walter Kirn's take on how a filmmaker should approach Salinger's novel, a movie that successfully captures the tone would still be a less emotionally fulfilling experience. I just don't understand why anyone would bother.

As usual, no one does it better than The Onion.