In college a buddy and I raided the library and tracked down every short story JD Salinger ever published in magazines. There was no other way to read them, and we had to read them. Salinger was our shining beacon. After xeroxing the dozen or so stories from out of Saturday Evening Post, Good Housekeeping, The New Yorker, and various other postwar periodicals, we bound them up into a treasured volume. He wrote Catcher in the Rye, our bible for haberdashery, poise, and "roller skate skinny" sisters named Weatherfield. Franny and Zooey knocked our socks off. JD Salinger guided me toward a new understanding of literature and the artist. I pray that he of the agitated and alienated soul will at last rest in peace.
