J.D. Salinger Letters Discovered, Reveal Social Life, Unpublished Work

The celebrated author of teen angst and alienation novel The Catcher in the Rye was known for his reclusive behavior in his latter years. However, recently discovered letters reveal that J.D. Salinger may not have been the hermit he was thought to be. In correspondence to a friend from his teen years, Salinger is depicted as a man who enjoyed watching tennis, trips to the theater, and fast-food burgers—specifically from Burger King....  read more

A Dozen of Literature's Greatest Jerks

The other day, while listening to LCD Soundsystem’s “Dance Yrself Clean” the line, “Talking like a jerk / Except you are an actual jerk / And living proof that sometimes friends are mean” started knocking around in our heads, and it got us to thinking about all the jerks we’ve met in our lifetimes. From there, we started thinking about all the jerks we’ve read about in our lifetimes—there are plenty of literary characters we’ve encountered that almost make the real-life jerks seem tolerable. Below are a dozen that particularly stand out....  read more

The Booky Man: Private Thoughts on J.D. Salinger

The most famous anonymous citizen of Cornish, New Hampshire, in a desperate move for more privacy, recently relocated at age 91 to Writer’s Heaven....  read more