SALINGER: A BIOGRAPHY; by Paul Alexander (Renaissance, $24.95, 352 pages.)Whether they have read it or not, most people who grew up in the 1950s recognize the name, J.D. Salinger, and his only novel, "The Catcher in the Rye."
In fact, the book has become an unquestioned classic, one of those "must read" books on every English teacher's list. Some critics have drawn a parallel between Mark Twain's contribution of Tom Sawyer or Huckleberry Finn and Salinger's 20th century contribution of Holden Caulfield. They both symbolize the universal problems of adolescence.
Unfortunately, Salinger became a recluse shortly after the publication of his novel and has not given more than two interviews since. There have been a number of attempts to write about him, to persuade him to publish more books or to lecture, but he has never relented.
It's difficult to build a writing reputation on, essentially, one book (actually four books, but the other three were collections of stories), and so, over the years his importance has faded to the modern generation. Although Salinger used to be the first author on the lips of the average college student, he is now a distant memory to many.
Why is this writer so deathly afraid of publicity and so distrustful of all other people who write? Will he ever come down from the mountain and tell everything about his past 50 years? It would seem that at the age of 80, he has little to lose.
Whatever his reasons, Salinger remains reclusive in his Cornish, N.H., hideaway, where he can be seen on occasion -- but he is not likely to invite anyone in. Certainly not the likes of a biographer like Paul Alexander.
While Alexander had no interviews with Salinger, he did get his hands on virtually everything else that could shed light on the author, his life and his work. Alexander suggests intriguing connections between Holden Caulfield and his creator, leading to the inescapable conclusion that most of Salinger's writing was autobiographical.
In 1953, Salinger submitted to one of probably only two interviews he would ever give -- to a young high school student named Shirley Blaney. When she asked him if "Catcher in the Rye" was autobiographical, he said, "Sort of," then added, "I was much relieved when I finished the novel. My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book, and it was a great relief telling people about it."
Alexander also makes it clear that Salinger has been preoccupied all his life with the problems and challenges of youths. In fact, the continuing rumors about his brief liaisons with young women suggest that it is only young women who fascinate him.
His marriage to Claire Douglas, which began when she was 19, ended in 1967 when she was only 34. And the recent brouhaha over author Joyce Maynard's decision to auction off some private letters Salinger sent her back in the 1970s is another good example. As a Yale freshman, Maynard wrote a New York Times cover story, "An Eighteen-Year-Old Looks Back on Life." Salinger was intrigued by it, and he wrote her a laudatory letter. The result was a meeting and a 10-month affair, during which Maynard moved in with Salinger. At the end of 10 months, Salinger abruptly ended the affair.
According to Alexander, it was not the only time Salinger approached younger women -- including public figures, such as soap opera stars -- and it was not the only affair he had with younger women. His one true love affair, however, was probably with Oona O'Neill, the extraordinarily beautiful daughter of writer Eugene O'Neill. Charlie Chaplin was able to steal her away from him, however.
In the late 1980s, Ian Hamilton, a scholar who had always held admiration for Salinger's work, wrote a biography called "A Writer's Life," but advance copies fell into Salinger's hands and he determined to legally block its publication. His premise? That Hamilton had used some of Salinger's unpublished letters in the book without Salinger's permission.
After a long legal battle, Hamilton finally gave up the project and deposited his manuscript and all his research in the Princeton University Library. Hence, Alexander was able to use all of Hamilton's materials to write his own book, even though neither author was able to actually sit down and chat with Salinger.
There is probably more information now available than there was originally to Hamilton, but it is to be regretted that the earlier scholar was not permitted to publish his work.
Alexander, as a journalist and freelance writer, had no qualms about toning down the intellectual side of the book and writing it at a level that would appeal to a mass audience. The result is an interesting work and the most complete collection of insights into Salinger and his life yet to appear.
But any scholar reading it will be disappointed because the documentation is thin. Although Alexander had access to a number of excellent collections, he purposely obscured his end notes into brief, unsatisfying descriptions of source material. His writing style is simplistic, with very little analysis, and several of his conclusions are superficial. The reader is likely to want to know more about virtually everything mentioned here, but either Alexander was being brief to avoid litigation or working with sources that failed to tell the whole story.
Interested readers would hope that Salinger would someday submit to a series of interviews with a literary scholar who would know how to interpret his story. In the meantime, we will have to be satisfied with this summary work, written in a highly conversational style.
It's a good book but not a great one.
The book's cover, on the other hand, is a creative masterpiece with a picture of a young Salinger at the time he wrote "Catcher," contrasted by a newer photograph taken by paparazzi photographer Paul Adao in 1996. The older photo is emblazoned on the book itself, while the newer one is on the paper cover. It looks computer-generated, but it's not.