The Catcher in the Rye: The Voice of
Alienation
Books:
These are just a few of the more recent books and book-length
collections of essays about Salinger’s novel:
Graham, Sarah. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye.
New York: Continuum, c2007.
Kotzen, Kip, and Thomas Beller (Eds). With love
and Squalor: 14 Writers Respond to the Work of J.D.
Salinger. New York: Broadway Books, c2001.
Pinsker, Sanford. The Catcher in the Rye: Innocence
under Pressure.
New York: Maxwell Macmillan International, c1993.
_____. Understanding The catcher in the Rye: A
Student Casebook to Issues, Sources, and Historical
Documents.
Westport, CT: Greenwood 1999. Good text for using the
novel in the classroom.
Salzberg, Joel (Ed). Critical Essays on Salinger's
The Catcher in the Rye. Boston, MA: G.K. Hall,
c1990.
Salzman, Jack (Ed). New essays on The Catcher in
the Rye. New York : Cambridge University Press,
1991.
Steinle, Pamela Hunt. In Cold Fear: The Catcher
in the Rye Censorship Controversies and Postwar American
Character. Columbus : Ohio State University Press,
c2000.
You won’t find nearly as many books about the
novel’s reclusive author.
This is the most recent authoritative biography of Salinger
– and it’s twenty years old:
Hamilton, Ian. In search of J.D. Salinger.
New York: Random House, c1988.
For another point of view, you may want to look at
this memoir by Salinger’s daughter:
Salinger, Margaret Ann. Dream Catcher: A Memoir.
New York: Washington Square Press, c2000.
You’ll find an interesting body of literature
about America in the 1950s. You and your students may
want to look at these two books mentioned in the essay
you’ve just read:
Riesman, David, et al. The Lonely Crowd: A Study
of the Changing American Character. New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1950.
Whyte, William. The Organization Man. New York:
Simon & Schuster, 1956.
These recent studies of the decade will bring you up
to date on changing interpretations of life and culture
in the period:
Dunar, Andrew J. America in the Fifties. Syracuse,
NY: Syracuse University Press, 2006. A good introduction
to the subject by a recognized scholar.
Halliwell, Martin. American culture in the 1950s.
Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, c2007. An interesting
study from a British author.
Super, John D. (Ed.). The Fifties in America.
Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, c2005.
Encyclopedia-format reference book for the decade.
Young, William H. The 1950s. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 2004.
Part of the “American Popular Culture Through
History” series. Another good introduction.
This book examines other books from the period that
made their mark on our cultural history:
Castronovo, David. Beyond the Gray Flannel Suit:
Books from the 1950s that Made American Culture.
New York: Continuum, c2004.
This book doesn’t qualify as recent, but I’ve
always liked it. It’s currently out of print,
but you’ll find it at your local library:
Goldman, Eric Frederick. The Crucial Decade—and
After: America, 1945-1960. New York, Vintage Books,
c1960.
Internet
A Google search for “Catcher in the Rye lesson
plans” produces hundreds of hits – most
of them fee-based and many of the others easily ignored.
For example, take a look at “Litplans” suggestions:
http://litplans.com/authors/J_D_Salinger.html
You might want to start by looking at “Dr. G.’s”
comments on his Website at Monmouth College:
http://www.monmouth.com/~literature/#Catcher%20in%20the%20Rye
Apparently some of the best lesson plans on the novel
were done by Aailise Lamoreux, but her Website with
the complete group has vanished. Here are some individual
examples that survive on other sites:
http://64.233.167.104/search?q=cache:PT64RiCckrQJ:
cwp.belmont.k12.ma.us/lrinder/handouts/Holden_s%2520
Obit.doc+Ailise+Lamoreux&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us
and
http://pmrosen.tripod.com/room207/story.html
Full-scale The Catcher in the Rye or J.D. Salinger
websites are scarce because all of Salinger’s
writings are still covered by copyright, and the author
is notoriously cautious about granting rights for other
uses. You might be interested in this Website, based
in Germany:
http://www.wahlbrinck.de/catcherintherye/index.htm
Wikipedia entry on Salinger is pretty good:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Salinger
Copyright issues limit Websites on the 1950s as well.
See, for example, how few topics in this period American
Memory’s “Education” page can address:
http://memory.loc.gov/learn/lessons/theme.html
