English 120: Introduction to the English Major > A Catcher's Toolkit


Miscellaneous Resources for Historicizing The Catcher in the Rye.

Primary Resources (Selected Contemporary Texts):

  • The Prelinger Archives. A collection of digitized ephemera: films, print pamphlets, audio files, etc., from the realms of advertising, industry, and education; now part of the collection of the Library of Congress. A few choice items:

Feel free to browse the collection for other useful items; I've barely scratched the surface. You might (for instance) try browsing "topics" (righthand column of the collection's homepage), then narrowing the date range to find other such films from the late 1940s and early 50s.

  • The Literature and Culture of the American 1950s (U Penn Writing Center): A page of resources maintained by Al Filreis, Faculty Director of the Kelly Writers House at the University of Pennsylvania. The collection consists of links both to materials from the 1950s and later works of commentary and analysis about the 1950s. (I.e., both primary and secondary sources.) Especially useful to consult once you've narrowed your own focus. 

  • W.H. Auden, "Sigmund Freud." New Republic 6 October 1952. Among Auden's most famous works is his tribute to Freud, "In Memory of Sigmund Freud," written shortly after the death of the founder of psychoanalytic theory in 1939. In this essay, the poet ruminates on Freud's legacy (as of 1952, at least).
  • Robert L. Lamborn, "Must They Be 'Crazy, Mixed-up Kids'?" New York Times 26 June 1955.
  • James Stern,"Aw, the World's a Crumby Place." New York Times 15 July 1951. One of the more famous initial (negative) reviews of Catcher, written in a parody of Holden's narrative voice.
  • Lionel Trilling, "Sex and Science: The Kinsey Report." Trilling's famous assessment of the Kinsey Report appeared in the Partisan Review in April 1948. The link brings you to an archived copy of the journal; Trilling's piece begins on page 460.
  • William H. Whyte, Jr., The Organization Man. "Introduction"; "Classlessness in Suburbia." New York: Simon and Schuster, 1955. (Additional resources: Wikipedia entry on Whyte and on The Organization Man; an overview of the "Introduction" by a perceptive blogger.)

Secondary Resources (History and Context--Some Starting Points):

And here are a few other random links you may find useful--perhaps some of you diligent researchers have found one or more of them already already:

Commentary, Criticism, Critical History:

  • Eric Lomazoff, "The Praises and Criticisms of J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye": neither a brilliant piece of scholarship nor a model of expository prose, Lomazoff's piece--written when he was in the 11th grade!--nevertheless gives a useful overview (after the first five paragraphs, that is) of Catcher's early critical reception.  A juicy quote: "It is a widespread belief that much of Holden Caulfield's candid outlook on life reflects issues relevant to the youth of today, and thus the novel continues to be used as an educational resource in high schools throughout the nation (Davis 317-18)."
  • Louis Menand, "Holden at Fifty: The Catcher in the Rye and What It Spawned" (The New Yorker 1 October 2001). "The book keeps acquiring readers...not because kids keep discovering it but because grownups who read it when they were kids keep getting kids to read it. This seems crucial to making sense of its popularity. The Catcher in the Rye is a sympathetic portrait of a boy who refuses to be socialized which has become...a standard instrument of socialization."
  • SparkNotes.com:  looking for a good, canned interpretation of Catcher--or just something to argue with and position yourself against (or, ahem, "spark" your own thinking)?  Spark Notes--online rival of that bane of English teachers, Cliff's Notes--provides a decent, if somewhat orthodox and unimaginative, critical overview.  In my big-shot-Ph.D. professional opinion, this is more reliable (and sophisticated) than some other cheesy cheat sheats like NovelGuide, GradeSaver, or even Cliff's Notes itself. (What? You mean you're actually familiar with such shameful things?  I'm scandalized!)  Plus, it's the very first entry you get when you Google Catcher!--how easy is that?  Just don't plagiarize.
  • And in case you were wondering: yes, I am also familiar with the Catcher guidebooks by Sarah Graham (one published by Routledge, one by Continuum). They're quite well done, and used properly, they could both be very useful. You'll find excerpts from one of them above, in fact. But again, don't plagiarize--and if you don't know what constitutes plagiarism, then don't take chances.

Miscellany:

  • Robert Burns, "Comin' Thro' the Rye" (a two-column version with the Scots English original helpfully juxtaposed against a "standard" English translation). Holden famously misremembers this poem, which is basically an extended rhetorical question aimed at rationalizing casual sex.  Hmm...calling Dr. Freud: why might Holden have (subconsciously?) transformed the poem and its message as he did?
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