Literary Graffiti, Part 2: Holden in Our Hearts

Homage to The Catcher in the Rye, seen in a San Francisco, CA, sidewalk.
Image via thebenbram/Instagram

Documentary on J.D. Salinger to Hit the Small Screen

The spotlight is set to shine once more on the famously private author of the perennial favorite The Catcher in the Rye. A documentary on the late J.D. Salinger is set to air on television in January 2014. Directed by Shane Salerno, the film is sure to explore the many facets of the enigmatic Salinger.

Simply title Salinger, the documentary will air on PBS as part of its American Masters series, which presents in-depth and engaging biographies on those who've had an indelible impact on U.S. culture. Thirteen/WNET, which is the primary station of and program provider to PBS in the New York metropolitan area, acquired the exclusive U.S. television rights to the documentary.

"Shane's film is an extraordinary piece of work," Susan Lacy, the creator and executive producer of American Masters, said in an interview with Deadline.com. "It is my intellectual and emotional thrill to bring the inimitable J.D. Salinger into the American Masters library."

Preceding the television debut of Salinger on PBS will be the release of a companion book, The Private War of J.D. Salinger, to be published by Simon & Schuster. The book was written by Shane Salerno and David Shields. According to Mediabistro, "Salerno has been interviewing colleagues and intimates of Salinger since 2004. Since then, he and co-author David Shields have been shaping the interviews into an oral biography, which will be accompanied by never-before-seen photos of Salinger."

For fans of J.D. Salinger, this is all very exciting news! To read more about the documentary and the companion book, go HERE and HERE.

* Above image from http://www.paulsahre.com/work11/j_d_salingers_love_and_squalor

5 Books Every High School Student Should Read

When I was in high school, I was assigned to read a lot of Shakespeare. Many would say that the Bard should be required reading for high school students. Ashley Lauren has other, less expected suggestions about what books teenagers should be picking up. Lauren works as a high school English teacher in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois. She recently told alternative parenting blog Offbeat Families her picks for the 5 books that every teenager should read.

One of Lauren's recommended reads is actually somewhat expected: The Catcher in the Rye, by J.D. Salinger. But I must say that The Catcher in the Rye was not assigned reading for me in either high school or college, despite my being in AP English in the former and an English major in the latter. So I didn't end up reading Salinger's signature novel until I was in early adulthood. The fact that I chose to read it made it all the more enjoyable. I don't know what my teenaged self would've gotten out of it.

Lauren's other suggestions are less conventional: The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky; Columbine, by Dave Cullen; Reality Bites Back, by Jennifer Pozner; and A Raisin in the Sun, by Lorraine Hansberry. I wasn't required to read A Raisin in the Sun until college, but I will give my high school English teacher credit for assigning Their Eyes Were Watching God, thus exposing us to the less well-known Zora Neale Hurston.

For descriptions of Ashely Lauren's picks and why she chose them, go HERE.

* Above image of the first-edition publication of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun is from http://www.betweenthecovers.com.