CULCHA

The recluse in the light

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J.D. Salinger made as much a career of hiding from the public as he made doing the writing that made his being a recluse necessary in the first place. His celebrated novel The Catcher in the Rye, captured the imagination of postwar America; reading the exploits of Holden Caulfield became a signpost, a literary rite of passage for generations. Salinger died in January, steadfast in his withdrawal from public life. On Jan. 25, 2011, Random House drags him into the light with Salinger: A Life, a biography of the author by Salinger scholar Kenneth Slawenski, according to the book-publishing Web site Galleycat. (The book’s already out in the U.K.) And when it rains it pours: Galleycat reported previously on a mammoth (800-page) bio also in the works by director Shane Salerno and author David Shields. 

Slawenski’s Dead Caulfields research Web site recently posted this undated video of Salinger late in life — a brief but tantalizing look at the man of mystery.

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