J. D. Salinger_ A Life - Kenneth Slawenski [133]
None of these explanations is completely satisfying. Consequently, the story’s critics—many of whom found fault in its Eastern tenets—conveniently delivered the brunt of disapproval to the story’s ambiguous ending rather than condemn cultural philosophies they did not understand. Salinger himself recognized the story’s failure, conceding that though “Teddy” might have been “exceptionally Haunting,” and “Memorable,” it was also “unpleasantly controversial, and thoroughly unsuccessful.”27
As 1952 drew to a close, Salinger remained at a crossroad: if he were to continue presenting religious doctrine through his work, he would have to find another vehicle, stories that The New Yorker would actually print and characters whom the public would accept.
*The Catcher in the Rye last appeared on the New York Times best-seller list on March 2, 1952, when it held the number twelve position.
*Salinger’s decision to remove his photograph from the back cover of The Catcher in the Rye raised the value of the copies that contained the photograph exponentially. A first edition of Catcher with the dust jacket has been known to sell at auction for as much as $30,000. Second editions sell for less but still far more than later editions without Salinger’s photograph.
*Though the letter was undated, Salinger mailed it from Westport, which places it before May 8. The letter’s tenor and content also indicate that it was written very close to Salinger’s departure for overseas. In addition to its hectic tone, it reports Salinger having purchased a coat with a fur collar—an item he certainly wouldn’t have needed in New York during the spring.
*In a rare television interview, given in 1995, William Maxwell recalled Salinger’s indignation over the editorial insertion of a comma into one of his manuscripts. “There was hell to pay,” Maxwell remembered. The comma was removed. When asked what the incident said about Salinger as a writer, Maxwell became solemn. “Salinger’s idea of perfection is really perfection,” he said, “and it shouldn’t be tampered with.”
*It is possible that Doris accompanied her brother on part of the trip. Photographs taken about this time show her and Salinger enjoying themselves at a Florida beach resort.
*Parrish lived in Cornish until his death in 1966, at the age of ninety-six. It is not known whether the artist ever met his equally famous neighbor.
*Booper’s claim that she “hates everybody in this ocean” adds a dimension to the story’s setting, which casts its characters adrift in an environment with no definable borders, no beginning, and no end. This setting mirrors the Zen and Vedantic concept of existence. The characters of “Teddy” are delivered to the reader in real time and are not connected to future events.
*A number of scholars have offered this explanation without recourse. If this line of thought is followed through, it points directly to the possibility that Teddy planned Booper’s murder and predicted his own death in an effort to shift blame. This line of thought would transform the entire story and present Teddy as Salinger’s most insidious character.
11. Positioning
I’d build me a little cabin somewhere with the dough I made.
I’d build it right near the woods, but not right in them, because
I’d want it to be sunny as hell all the time.
—Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye
On February 16, 1953, J. D. Salinger became the official owner of 90 acres of hillside property in Cornish, New Hampshire.1 The temptation to interpret Salinger’s move as life imitating art is compelling. In The Catcher in the Rye Holden Caulfield