Nathan Bransford | Writing, Book Editing, Publishing

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  9. Shawn says

    His daughter Margaret wrote that he had dozens of novels completed and stored in the vault of his writing cabin.

    His intention was that they would be published posthumously.

    I'm sure his agent Dorothy Olding is devistated, but she's got a busy ten years ahead of her.

  10. Shawn says

    And a huge thank you to Jerry for his service to our country.

    He was 4-F, but finagled his way into WWII… only to be in just about every one of Europe's worst campaigns (D-day, Hurtgen Forrest, Battle of the Bulge) "digging foxholes to cowardly depths," as he wrote his family.

    He continued to drive around Cornish in an old Army issue Jeep. He was tremendously proud of his service and kept his army issue buzz cut for the rest of his life.

    Thank you for your literature, Jerry, but also thank you for your service.

    Half of Catcher in the Rye was written at an airbase in NJ where he waited forever for deployment. The other half was written upon his return. And THIS is why Catcher is a novel perfectly balanced between the fulcrum of innocence and cynicism.

    Catcher was the first anti-war book, and it barely mentioned the war.

  12. Nick says

    "His daughter Margaret wrote that he had dozens of novels completed and stored in the vault of his writing cabin.

    His intention was that they would be published posthumously."

    I remember his son said something about a filing system. Forget exactly what it was, but I remember it involved colors. Pulling colors out of my ass, it was something like:

    Blue = edit then publish
    Green = publish as is
    Red = do not publish

  16. Karen says

    I'm embarrassed to admit I've never read any of his books.

    Nope. Not even Catcher in the Rye.

    I will change that this weekend.

  17. Gretchen says

    “I hope to hell that when I do die somebody has the sense to just dump me in the river or something. Anything except sticking me in a goddamn cemetery. People coming and putting a bunch of flowers on your stomach on Sunday, and all that crap. Who wants flowers when you're dead? Nobody.”

  18. Cherry Lou Sy says

    His death today brought back memories of my English class back when I was in high school.
    I loved my English class.
    Ah, the good old days…
    J.D. Salinger was sure part of it.

    So in honor of him, I also wrote about some funny things I remembered about Catcher in the Rye in my blog.

  19. Samantha Clark says

    So sad. Even more sad that he spent much of his life hidden behind closed doors, but I guess he liked it that way.

    By the way, Nathan, I'll be at the SCBWI conference in Austin on Saturday. Looking forward to seeing you there.

  21. Richard A. Kray says

    It's very sad Mr. Salinger is dead, but I can't help but be excited for the book-reading community, getting our hands on all of the books he never published.

    Does that make me a bad person?

  22. KayKay says

    I love Catcher in the Rye. It's been one of my favorites for a long, long time. It's a real shame. RIP, J.D., you will be missed.

  23. Jennifer says

    It's such a cliche, but I guess it's a cliche because it's true: For me, reading "The Catcher in the Rye" as a disaffected 9th grader changed my life. It was as if Holden Caulfield sat down next to me in class, leaned over and whispered, "Yeah, it's lousy, but I get it." RIP, Mr. Salinger.

  24. Shawn says

    Richard I think we're in the same boat.

    I've long held grumbling contempt for a guy who would put me in the position of being "relieved" at the literary bounty unleashed at his passing.

    Every January 2nd I thought, "Okay, he's 78 years old today. 82 years old today. 89 years old today. Is THIS the year?"

    And so this was the year. On my birthday, no less. I got what I always wanted… and now I'm just bereft. So sad. So very sad.

  26. abc says

    I love everything he wrote. Reading about him from others' books (Margaret Salinger and Joyce Maynard) he didn't seem like the nicest person around, but I chose to love his characters, still. Zooey, Holden, Seymour, Buddy, Franny. They've all been important to me.

    Somewhere, Winona Ryder is devastated.

  27. Anonymous says

    "Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around — nobody big, I mean — except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff — I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be. I know it's crazy."

  28. Florence says

    THANKS ABC FOR THIS…"I love everything he wrote. Reading about him from others' books (Margaret Salinger and Joyce Maynard) he didn't seem like the nicest person around, but I chose to love his characters, still. Zooey, Holden, Seymour, Buddy, Franny. They've all been important to me.

    Somewhere, Winona Ryder is devastated."

    Today I set up a link on my blog so others could access one of this Nine Short Stories … Fine Day For Banana Fish … Almost yearly since college I've read Franny&Zoey and love reading one of the Nine when I get blue.

    Doesn't matter is he was thought of as a bit strange, he was a one-of-a-kind and like Winona I am also devastated. F.Fois

  29. Snipperoo says

    Why do you say 'has passed'? Surely the term is 'passed away' or 'passed on' if you want to use a euphemism. Died is quite a good word for it, or shuffled off this mortal coil if you want to be coy. But passed, footballers pass, how are we supposed to know what you are talking about if we don't know what you are talking about?

  30. Christine says

    I read Catcher in the Rye AFTER I quit HS and was on my own for about 4 years. I remember the story, certain vignettes, but I need to read it again with the prism of my experiences since those early years.

    Amazing how time changes one's view.

  33. Mary Malcolm says

    I was listening to the BBC when I heard, I'm so sad! They were commenting that this is the only book he published because he loved writing and hated publishing.

    I sometimes daydream about him and Harper Lee together. I imagine them meeting for secret author teas and talking about the books they've written but not sent out into the world. I hope one day I get to read all those secret books.

  34. Rachel Fenton says

    He was 91! A fair innings I'd say. And managed to influence squillions of writers with such a small output! What's sad about that – he was never going to live forever – now he's immortal!

  35. Shannon says

    I heard this news on my way home from work yesterday. Apparently he said something like that "if you publish, everyone thinks you owe them something" which is interesting. Being engaged in the world socially is to be turned outwards, whereas writing well requires that one be turned inwards; and not only while writing. The work goes on inside of us even when we're not thinking about it, and excessive socializing can disrupt and derail it. Perhaps he found he could not maintain both his artistic focus and the requirements of courting the public. I've read all of his books, but the thing that I like and admire most about him, especially in a society where the public tends to dissect and devour anyone they can can a toehold on (think politics, Tiger Woods, Brittainy Spears, all of that noise) that all the public got from him was his books. Which really is all that we are entitled to, and only because he chose to give them to us.

    He also said to "write with all your stars out".

  36. Terry says

    I'm with Rachel Fenton: Now he's immortal.

    "Catcher in the Rye" was one of my favorite books in my early teens. RIP, J.D.

  37. sesgaia says

    I'm with Snipperoo- the new habit of using the word "passed" really bothers me. It's a cop-out. How can we just pass? pass what? As writers, we should try harder to state the truth, whether poetically,bruntly, or brutally. I challenge all of us to come up with more meaningful terms.  

  38. PurpleClover says

    So sad. I didn't even know. I just donated this book to a local Hands On book drive for a Women and Children's home. It was one of my favorite books!