Update: Obviously Salinger passed away on Wednesday at 91. RIP.
————– Originally published December 12, 2009 ———–
Author J.D. Salinger, is perhaps the most reclusive of America’s reclusive writers (Thomas Pynchon, Harper Lee, Denis Johnson, etc.) having shut himself off from public and ceasing publication of any new material since “Raise High The Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction.” This tales of the eccentric Glass family, covered most famously in his books “Catcher In The Rye” and “Franny & Zooey” have long been the holy grail for Hollywood producers to turn into movies. Though the novels have inspired contemporary filmmakers (“The Royal Tenenbaums” being the most transparently influenced film to date) Salinger has vehemently been opposed to selling the rights to the books after being burned when his short story “Uncle Wiggly In Connecticut” was pillaged to create the poorly received “My Foolish Heart.” Since that experience, Salinger has sworn to never again let the rights to his books fall into Hollywood hands.
Over at the fun correspondence blog Letters Of Note they’ve posted a 1957 letter by Salinger to a mysterious Mr. Hebert which very clearly outlines everything that wouldn’t make a film version of “Catcher In The Rye” work:
R. D. 2
Windsor, Vt.
July 19, 1957Dear Mr. Herbert,
I’ll try to tell you what my attitude is to the stage and screen rights of The Catcher in the Rye. I’ve sung this tune quite a few times, so if my heart doesn’t seem to be in it, try to be tolerant….Firstly, it is possible that one day the rights will be sold. Since there’s an ever-looming possibility that I won’t die rich, I toy very seriously with the idea of leaving the unsold rights to my wife and daughter as a kind of insurance policy. It pleasures me to no end, though, I might quickly add, to know that I won’t have to see the results of the transaction. I keep saying this and nobody seems to agree, but The Catcher in the Rye is a very novelistic novel. There are readymade “scenes” – only a fool would deny that – but, for me, the weight of the book is in the narrator’s voice, the non-stop peculiarities of it, his personal, extremely discriminating attitude to his reader-listener, his asides about gasoline rainbows in street puddles, his philosophy or way of looking at cowhide suitcases and empty toothpaste cartons – in a word, his thoughts. He can’t legitimately be separated from his own first-person technique. True, if the separation is forcibly made, there is enough material left over for something called an Exciting (or maybe just Interesting) Evening in the Theater. But I find that idea if not odious, at least odious enough to keep me from selling the rights. There are many of his thoughts, of course, that could be labored into dialogue – or into some sort of stream-of-consciousness loud-speaker device – but labored is exactly the right word. What he thinks and does so naturally in his solitude in the novel, on the stage could at best only be pseudo-simulated, if there is such a word (and I hope not). Not to mention, God help us all, the immeasurably risky business of using actors. Have you ever seen a child actress sitting crosslegged on a bed and looking right? I’m sure not. And Holden Caulfield himself, in my undoubtedly super-biassed opinion, is essentially unactable. A Sensitive, Intelligent, Talented Young Actor in a Reversible Coat wouldn’t nearly be enough. It would take someone with X to bring it off, and no very young man even if he has X quite knows what to do with it. And, I might add, I don’t think any director can tell him.
I’ll stop there. I’m afraid I can only tell you, to end with, that I feel very firm about all this, if you haven’t already guessed.
Thank you, though, for your friendly and highly readable letter. My mail from producers has mostly been hell.
Sincerely,
(Signed, ‘J. D. Salinger’)
J. D. Salinger
He makes a strong case against adaptation, but then again, it has been said about a lot of books that have ended up being made into films.
So what do you think? Is “Catcher In The Rye” unfilmable? Who do you think could tackle the lead role and direct this?