Betraying Salinger

http://nymag.com/arts/books/features/65210/

by john7 • 16 years ago

68 26 16 years ago

rmorrison• 16 years ago

While I understand where J D Salinger is coming from, this reminds me of a couple customers that I've dealt with over the years. They come up with some ridiculous request, and you smile and agree because they're the customer and you want the deal, then the whole thing turns out to be a lot more trouble than it's worth.

hugh35• 16 years ago

A review of the story in question, for those who are curious:

http://www.thesatirist.com/books/HAPWORTH.html

I also tracked down a copy of the full text, but in the interests of some kind of vague respect for copyright I'll leave you to figure out how to obtain it for yourself.

michael_dorfman4• 16 years ago

It's also available on the Complete New Yorker DVDs, and in most public libraries, if you still believe in the world outside of the internet.

GFischer• 16 years ago

Well, for most of us (say, about 6 billion or so), it's NOT available in the local public libraries (yes, I know you were saying the US public libraries, but the WWW / Internet is so much more useful!).

steve19• 16 years ago

An interesting tale. Salinger wanted the book published but also wanted nobody to know that it had been published.

nonrecursive• 16 years ago

Reminds me of the line in Catcher in the Rye where Holden says that if he could play the piano as well as... some guy was currently playing piano, he would play it in the closet.

hugh35• 16 years ago

Alternatively, he was bored and felt like dicking with a publisher for a while at great expense to them.

danbmil99• 16 years ago

guy sounds like a first class self-obsessed jerk. World's full of 'em.

SwellJoe• 16 years ago

Yes, but a self-obsessed jerk who created truly great work. I will forgive nearly every personal flaw in the face of great work.

Also, thanks for reminding me. I haven't been doing much truly great work lately...it's time to step it up a notch. I sure aint gonna be winning any politeness contests, so the body of work is what matters.

DannoHung• 16 years ago

The artist is separate from the art.

chbarts• 16 years ago

> Yes, but a self-obsessed jerk who created truly great work.

That is certainly a popular notion. Funny how other good authors are also prolific authors.

cynicalkane• 16 years ago

Alternately, he was a recluse with a morbid aversion to publicity. Those who knew Salinger said (after his death) that he was a very likable person. Certainly they respected him enough to shield his personal life from Salinger-hunters.

msie• 16 years ago

Wow. If he had actually finished producing the book it would quickly become a bestseller once someone discovered its existence. I think the old man would have had a chuckle buying the plain-looking book at some small, non-chain bookstore.

barrkel• 16 years ago

I think this publishing attempt was doomed from the outset. There was no way that the attempt could ever escape notice for long; and any notice made of it would have upset Salinger. At best, Salinger would have felt duped, if contracts etc. had proceeded to the point that publishing could no longer be aborted.

dmm4• 16 years ago

The real problem here is the length of copyright terms, which now stand at pretty much forever. If we had more reasonable laws then anyone who damn well pleased could published it.

michael_dorfman4• 16 years ago

...without paying the author of the work. Are you sure that's what you want?

How long do you think the copyright terms should be? In the case discussed here, we're talking about a work from 1965. You think that everything published before then should be up for grabs?

dmm4• 16 years ago

> ...without paying the author of the work. Are you sure that's what you want?

That is exactly what I want.

> How long do you think the copyright terms should be?

Personally I think 20 years is a reasonable number. The original Copyright Act of 1790 established a term of 14 years with the option of one renewal. Remember that this was in the age of manual printing presses and horse-drawn wagons. In this age of on-demand printing and digital distribution 20 years is more than enough.

The copyright system isn't a right in the sense of speech or assembly, it's a temporary monopoly granted to an author in order to "..promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts..". Any aspect of copyright law which fails to promote those goals fails to uphold the constitutional foundation and ultimate purpose of the copyright system.

Copyright law exists in order to encourage authors to create by allowing them to benefit from their creation, but how does allowing a person to collect royalties on something they made 50 years ago promote creativity?

Betraying Salinger

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