J.D. Salinger

EULOGY

Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around—nobody big, I mean—except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff—I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.

From 1966 to 1979, I read Salinger's magnum opus at least once annually. It certainly was one of the most influential works I ever found, and I was somewhat saddened when I realized in my thirties that it wasn't having the same effect on me as it had earlier.

Requiescat in pace.