Commendation and Condemnation: The Initial and Current Reception of J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
When J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye was published in July 1951, it was also chosen as the midsummer selection of the Book-of-the-Month Club. While describing the novel to club members, literary critic Clifton Fadiman described Catcher as a “rare miracle of fiction” (Steinle 44). Salinger’s “rare miracle” would quickly enthrall readers and continue to enthrall them for decades afterward. Yet, like so many classic novels, The Catcher in the Rye has also been met with resistance due to its content, which includes frequent cursing, frank talk about sex, underage drinking, and prostitution. Both at the time of its publication and in the present day, Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye has been widely acclaimed—but has also sparked controversy.
In one of the first full-length reviews of Catcher (most of the early reviews were only a few sentences), the Saturday Review’s Harrison Smith called Catcher “a remarkable and absorbing novel” (Steinle 46). Harvey Breit’s review in The Atlantic said it was a “brilliant tour de force” (Steinle 50); the National Council of Teachers of English publication College English described it as a “funny, tragic, ribald account” and noted simply that “readers are enjoying it” (Fisher). Even The Nation’s Ernest Jones, who said that the book is “as a whole predictable and boring,” simultaneously said that the novel was “always lively in its parts.”
Another thing most early reviews had in common was a superficial treatment of Catcher. The review in Time mentioned the book’s “acidly humorous deadpan satire” but made no mention of its less lighthearted moments (“With Love & 20-20 Vision”). Booklist’s review called Catcher “an unusual book on a pertinent theme” but failed to elaborate on this theme (Steinle 46). As Richard and Carol Ohmann state in Reviewers, Critics, and “The Catcher in the Rye”, readers “viewed the novel as a novel.”
The novel’s detractors, focusing only on the events of the novel and not the circumstances, shared this simplistic viewpoint. They were quick to label the novel’s language inimical but never realized that without this diction, the novel would not be the same. These critics would latch onto the book’s content and, in many cases, call for its removal from libraries and schools.
The controversy that still surrounds Catcher was hinted at by the Library Journal, which emphasized that Catcher is “an adult book,” although it is written about an adolescent (Steinle 45). Most concerns about the novel were of this opinion: Catcher was inappropriate for a younger audience but not inappropriate for all readers.
Some readers, however, felt that it should be hidden from all audiences. In a July 1951 review, T. Morris Longstreth of the Christian Science Monitor blasted the novel as “a nightmarish medley” that was “wholly repellent in its mingled vulgarity, naïveté, and sly perversion.” Longstreth feared that “a book like this given wide circulation may multiply [Holden’s] kind” (Steinle 50).
Opinions like Longstreth’s fueled nationwide objections to Salinger’s novel. The first recorded attempt to censor Catcher occurred in 1954, and the controversy continued to pick up steam, peaking in the 60’s. One notable incident occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1960, when parents demanded that a Tulsa high school be fired after she gave her class copies of Catcher. She did not require students to read the novel, but many Tulsa residents were outraged nonetheless. The objectors said that the book had “filth on every page.” Ultimately, the school’s principal decided to remove the book but not to fire the teacher, saying “we all make mistakes” (“Rye on the Rocks”).
Even today, censorship of Catcher continues. The book ranks #19 on the American Library Association’s 2000-2009 list of most frequently banned and challenged books; on the 1990-1999 list, it placed tenth. In 2001, it was removed by a school board member in Summerville, South Carolina, who described it as a “filthy, filthy book” (American Library Association).
Yet the major reaction to Catcher remains one of praise. It is considered a classic and is widely assigned to high school students. After Salinger died in 2009, journalists were quick to laud the novelist’s most famous work. Richard Lacayo of Time called it a “universal rite of passage for adolescents”; Bart Barnes of the Washington Post described Holden Caulfield as a “folk hero of American fiction.”
In Time’s coverage of the Tulsa censorship incident, the magazine called The Catcher in the Rye “the most avidly admired novel on modern American campuses” (“Rye on the Rocks”). It also noted that when news of the controversy broke, local bookstores immediately sold out of Catcher. The novel’s popularity was already cemented, and so the censorship was futile. This can be representative of Catcher’s overall reception in the past sixty years: occasionally targeted but overwhelmingly loved.
Works Cited
Barnes, Bart. “J.D. Salinger, 91; ‘Catcher in the Rye’ Author Became Famous Recluse. The Washington Post 29 Jan 2010. Print.
Fisher, Beverly; Max Fuller; Horst Frenz; Robert A. Hume; Virginia Belle Lowers; and George Summey, Jr. College English Oct 1951: pgs. 57-69. Print.
Jones, Ernest. “Case History of All of Us.” The Nation 1 Sept. 1951. Print.
Lacayo, Richard. “J.D. Salinger Dies: Hermit Crab of American Letters.” Time 29 Jan 2010. Print.
Ohmann, Carol and Richard Ohmann. “Reviewers, Critics, and ‘The Catcher in the Rye.’” Critical Inquiry Autumn 1976: pgs. 15-37. Print.
“Rye on the Rocks.” Time 9 May 1960: pg. 69. Print.
Steinle, Pamela Hunt. In Cold Fear: The Catcher in the Rye Censorship Controversies and Postwar American Character. Columbus: The Ohio State University, 2000. Print.
“With Love & 20-20 Vision.” Time 16 July 1951: pg. 98. Print.
In one of the first full-length reviews of Catcher (most of the early reviews were only a few sentences), the Saturday Review’s Harrison Smith called Catcher “a remarkable and absorbing novel” (Steinle 46). Harvey Breit’s review in The Atlantic said it was a “brilliant tour de force” (Steinle 50); the National Council of Teachers of English publication College English described it as a “funny, tragic, ribald account” and noted simply that “readers are enjoying it” (Fisher). Even The Nation’s Ernest Jones, who said that the book is “as a whole predictable and boring,” simultaneously said that the novel was “always lively in its parts.”
Another thing most early reviews had in common was a superficial treatment of Catcher. The review in Time mentioned the book’s “acidly humorous deadpan satire” but made no mention of its less lighthearted moments (“With Love & 20-20 Vision”). Booklist’s review called Catcher “an unusual book on a pertinent theme” but failed to elaborate on this theme (Steinle 46). As Richard and Carol Ohmann state in Reviewers, Critics, and “The Catcher in the Rye”, readers “viewed the novel as a novel.”
The novel’s detractors, focusing only on the events of the novel and not the circumstances, shared this simplistic viewpoint. They were quick to label the novel’s language inimical but never realized that without this diction, the novel would not be the same. These critics would latch onto the book’s content and, in many cases, call for its removal from libraries and schools.
The controversy that still surrounds Catcher was hinted at by the Library Journal, which emphasized that Catcher is “an adult book,” although it is written about an adolescent (Steinle 45). Most concerns about the novel were of this opinion: Catcher was inappropriate for a younger audience but not inappropriate for all readers.
Some readers, however, felt that it should be hidden from all audiences. In a July 1951 review, T. Morris Longstreth of the Christian Science Monitor blasted the novel as “a nightmarish medley” that was “wholly repellent in its mingled vulgarity, naïveté, and sly perversion.” Longstreth feared that “a book like this given wide circulation may multiply [Holden’s] kind” (Steinle 50).
Opinions like Longstreth’s fueled nationwide objections to Salinger’s novel. The first recorded attempt to censor Catcher occurred in 1954, and the controversy continued to pick up steam, peaking in the 60’s. One notable incident occurred in Tulsa, Oklahoma, in 1960, when parents demanded that a Tulsa high school be fired after she gave her class copies of Catcher. She did not require students to read the novel, but many Tulsa residents were outraged nonetheless. The objectors said that the book had “filth on every page.” Ultimately, the school’s principal decided to remove the book but not to fire the teacher, saying “we all make mistakes” (“Rye on the Rocks”).
Even today, censorship of Catcher continues. The book ranks #19 on the American Library Association’s 2000-2009 list of most frequently banned and challenged books; on the 1990-1999 list, it placed tenth. In 2001, it was removed by a school board member in Summerville, South Carolina, who described it as a “filthy, filthy book” (American Library Association).
Yet the major reaction to Catcher remains one of praise. It is considered a classic and is widely assigned to high school students. After Salinger died in 2009, journalists were quick to laud the novelist’s most famous work. Richard Lacayo of Time called it a “universal rite of passage for adolescents”; Bart Barnes of the Washington Post described Holden Caulfield as a “folk hero of American fiction.”
In Time’s coverage of the Tulsa censorship incident, the magazine called The Catcher in the Rye “the most avidly admired novel on modern American campuses” (“Rye on the Rocks”). It also noted that when news of the controversy broke, local bookstores immediately sold out of Catcher. The novel’s popularity was already cemented, and so the censorship was futile. This can be representative of Catcher’s overall reception in the past sixty years: occasionally targeted but overwhelmingly loved.
Works Cited
Barnes, Bart. “J.D. Salinger, 91; ‘Catcher in the Rye’ Author Became Famous Recluse. The Washington Post 29 Jan 2010. Print.
Fisher, Beverly; Max Fuller; Horst Frenz; Robert A. Hume; Virginia Belle Lowers; and George Summey, Jr. College English Oct 1951: pgs. 57-69. Print.
Jones, Ernest. “Case History of All of Us.” The Nation 1 Sept. 1951. Print.
Lacayo, Richard. “J.D. Salinger Dies: Hermit Crab of American Letters.” Time 29 Jan 2010. Print.
Ohmann, Carol and Richard Ohmann. “Reviewers, Critics, and ‘The Catcher in the Rye.’” Critical Inquiry Autumn 1976: pgs. 15-37. Print.
“Rye on the Rocks.” Time 9 May 1960: pg. 69. Print.
Steinle, Pamela Hunt. In Cold Fear: The Catcher in the Rye Censorship Controversies and Postwar American Character. Columbus: The Ohio State University, 2000. Print.
“With Love & 20-20 Vision.” Time 16 July 1951: pg. 98. Print.