J. D. Salinger, author, recluse, CU creative writing student, dies at 91

Columbia has its share of literary giants, but few have hid themselves as well as J. D. Salinger.

On Wednesday, the esteemed but reclusive American author died at age 91 in his New Hampshire home. Salinger is best known for his only published novel, “The Catcher in the Rye,” but also remembered for his collection “Nine Stories” and his compilations “Franny and Zooey” and “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction.”

In 1939, Salinger enrolled in a short story writing class at Columbia and was reported to have submitted to Quarto, Columbia’s undergraduate literary journal and the official magazine of the Undergraduate Writing Program. His passing has raised questions of the future of his place in the American and, more specifically, New York canon.

“It’s kind of like a ghost dying,” Columbia English and comparative literature professor Maura Spiegel said of Salinger’s death. “His presence was so theoretical.”

His campus presence, too, is now somewhat theoretical—according to Quarto co-executive editor Casey Black, GS, the organization could neither confirm nor deny that a recent search for Salinger’s work in their archives verified that he ever submitted to the magazine.

But however invisible in the campus and the larger public eye Salinger sought to be, his words were rarely overlooked. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of “The Catcher in the Rye,” won over the hearts of millions of misunderstood youth with his rebellion against all that is false—or rather, “phony.”

“He takes the pain of young people seriously,” Spiegel said of Salinger when asked about the resonance of his work. “I don’t think that people are doing that very much.”

Erica Weaver, CC ’12, a coordinator of the Writer’s House, and a Spectator books writer, said that Salinger’s discourse with America’s youth established his place in their hearts. “I always had this fantasy that maybe I could meet him someday,” she said.

Perhaps it is odd, then, that his work is rarely taught beyond the high school level. “I’m struck by how university courses stay away from him,” Spiegel said. “Academics haven’t raked him over, but from generation to generation, he’s still a connection.”

Spiegel, who also teaches in the American studies department, said that Salinger “kept the moment of New York in the late 1940s alive through his works,” a moment housed in dark and romantic hotel bars and dirty apartments. To a certain extent, this still encapsulates the New York of today, especially that of students.

“I just can’t imagine what it’s like to read him if you’re not a New Yorker,” Spiegel said. “He just got it.”

Devin Briski contributed reporting to this article.