by Sarah Statz Cords
By now the news has widely spread that the literary world lost two giants this week, J.D. Salinger and Howard Zinn (at 91 years old and 87 years old, respectively). Below we offer our list of links to news about and writings by the authors.
J.D. Salinger was perhaps best known for his novel The Catcher in the Rye, which, in its iconic red jacket with yellow lettering, became the book with which every teenager wanted to be seen. He also wrote the novels Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (two novellas in one), and the story collection, Nine Stories. A volume titled The Complete Uncollected Stories of J.D. Salinger was published in two volumes in 1974. A novella, Hapworth 16, 1924, which had first appeared as a long short story in a 1965 issue of the New Yorker, was set to be published in 1997, but never appeared after the author decided not to approve its publication.
Salinger was no stranger to controversy, and although the majority of his life was spent in seclusion, a number of books were also written about him. In 1988 British literary critic Ian Hamilton wrote In Search of J.D. Salinger, an unauthorized biography (Salinger sued to keep Hamilton from using quotes from unpublished letters, in a case that went all the way to the Supreme Court). Salinger’s personal life also came under scrutiny when his daughter Margaret published a memoir of her childhood and her famous father, titled Dream Catcher (2000). Author Joyce Maynard, who met and moved in with the author for ten months in the early 1970s, also wrote a memoir about her love affair and life with him titled At Home in the World (1998). Later she would be criticized for putting the letters they wrote one another up for auction. Even more recently, in 2009, Salinger won a copyright infringement lawsuit which effectively blocked the publication of a “sequel” to The Catcher in the Rye, written by author Fredrik Colting.
Although available only to its print and digital subscribers, the New Yorker has posted a page of links to the stories of Salinger that they published. Much of today’s commentary online is filled with lamentations, but the satirical newspaper The Onion offers a little lighter take on the subject.
Author and historian Howard Zinn died at the age of 87 on Wednesday, January 27. Zinn was also a pop culture giant, loved by high schoolers and other readers alike for his revisionist history of the United States, titled A People’s History of the United States. It has sold nearly two million copies since its first publication in 1980.
Zinn was also known for his dedication to leftist ideology. His other nonfiction titles are: La Guardia in Congress (1959), SNCC: The New Abolitionists (1964), The Southern Mystique (1964), Vietnam: The Logic of Withdrawal (1967), Disobedience and Democracy (1968), The Politics of History (1970), Post-War America (1973), A People’s History of the United States (1980), Declarations of Independence: Cross-examining American Ideology (1990), Failure to Quit: Reflections of an Optimistic Historian (1993), You Can’t Be Neutral on a Moving Train: A Personal History of Our Times (1994), The Zinn Reader (1997), The Future of History: Interviews with David Barsamian (1999), Howard Zinn on History (2001), Howard Zinn on War and Other Means and Ends (2001), Terrorism and War (2002), Artists in Times of War (2003), Passionate Declarations (2003), The Twentieth Century: A People’s History (2003), Voices of a People’s History of the United States (2004), Howard Zinn on Democratic Education (2005), Just War (2005), History Matters: Conversations on History and Politics (2006), A Power Governments Cannot Suppress (2006), and A People’s History of American Empire, a graphic novel written with Mike Konopacki and Paul Buhle (2008).
I can honestly say that I was completely unaware he had written so many books (in addition to plays, and serving as editor for several other collections). A video tribute to the author is available at Democracy Now!, and his biography and a December 2009 interview can also be found at the Bill Moyers Journal page.
Please do let us know, in the comments, of any links or tributes to either author that you’ve come across and would like to share.
