Author J.D. Salinger died on Jan. 27, 2010. Only three days after his death, film director Shane Salerno announced that he had been working on a film about the secret life of Salinger for the past five years, and it was released earlier this year.
For those of you who aren’t familiar with Salinger, perhaps you are familiar with his most famous novel, The Catcher in the Rye. This book revolutionized the coming-of-age genre and impacted the lives of multiple generations of readers.
But what many people might not know is that Salinger struggled with unwanted media attention throughout his life, doing everything he could to stay out of the spotlight. This included legal conflicts in which Salinger sued other authors who tried to write biographies about him, refused to do interviews, blocked screenings of film adaptations of his books, and lived a general life of isolation.
He once said, “I write just for myself and my own pleasure” and said he thought publication is a “damned interruption.”
Salerno waited until Salinger could no longer protest or refuse—due to the fact that he’s, well, dead—to announce a movie based entirely on his personal life. Seems like a harsh invasion of privacy and outright disrespect of his legacy to me. Not to mention an exploitation of his name and works for possible monetary gain.
While documentaries about historical figures are common, Salinger’s case is different. This is a man who desperately wanted privacy—something that didn’t come easily after he gained celebrity status following the success of The Catcher in the Rye. He took greater measures than most famous people do to stay out of the public eye.
It’s not as if readers must know about the intensely detailed private life of an author to fully appreciate their work. When I read The Catcher in the Rye, I knew nothing about Salinger’s role in World War II, that he suffered heartbreak, or his struggles with post-traumatic stress disorder.
Yet I could still thoroughly enjoy the book and analyze it, instead of focusing on the author who wrote it. Is it not enough to simply admire Salinger for his literary works alone? Must we delve so deep into his personal life to be able form an opinion about his books? I certainly don’t think so.
Salinger wrote about damaged people. This could be because he was damaged himself, but that shouldn’t matter. People still enjoy his books, regardless of whether or not he led an eccentric life.
My message to Salerno would be to respect a dead man’s wishes and leave Salinger’s books to speak for themselves.
