Old Dead Guys

Here's an obit that's been gathering dust, waiting for this day:

J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91.

Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author's son said in a statement from Salinger's longtime literary representative, Harold Ober Agency. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in the small, remote house in Cornish, N.H.

"The Catcher in the Rye," with its immortal teenage protagonist, the twisted, rebellious Holden Caulfield, came out in 1951, a time of anxious, Cold War conformity and the dawn of modern adolescence. The Book-of-the-Month Club, which made "Catcher" a featured selection, advised that for "anyone who has ever brought up a son" the novel will be "a source of wonder and delight — and concern."

Enraged by all the "phonies" who make "me so depressed I go crazy," Holden soon became American literature's most famous anti-hero since Huckleberry Finn. The novel's sales are astonishing — more than 60 million copies worldwide — and its impact incalculable. Decades after publication, the book remains a defining expression of that most American of dreams: to never grow up.

Strangely, at first I was also thinking of D.B. Cooper, who is famous for hijacking a plane and parachuting out with over $200K, never to be found. And even Cooper eluded me as he and actor D.B. Sweeney were fighting it out for name recognition. There's no mistaking the reclusive author and the thief, but their names have that similar ring. I am one of the minority who hate Catcher and think Holden Caulfield is a pretentious, hypocritical sack of shit. I wish he was running of a cliff and nobody caught him. It was a terrible read and the hype of him being a great, modern anti-hero was lost on me.

Equally dead is Howard Zinn, the author, teacher and political activist whose "A People's History of the United States" was a popular alternative to mainstream texts and himself was a favorite intellectual of celebrities. Zinn (87) died of a heart attack.

Published in 1980 with little promotion and a first printing of 5,000, "A People's History" grew through word of mouth and reached 1 million sales in 2003. At a time when few politicians dared even call themselves liberal, his book told an openly left-wing story. Zinn charged Christopher Columbus and other explorers with genocide, picked apart presidents from Andrew Jackson to Franklin D. Roosevelt and celebrated workers, feminists and war resisters.

Even liberal historians were uneasy with Zinn. In a 1998 interview, he acknowledged he was not trying to write an objective history, or a complete one. He called his book a response to traditional works, the first chapter — not the last — of a new kind of history. "There's no such thing as a whole story; every story is incomplete," Zinn said. "My idea was the orthodox viewpoint has already been done a thousand times."

The book had famous admirers, including Matt Damon and Affleck, who gave the book a plug in their Academy Award-winning screenplay for Good Will Hunting. Oliver Stone was a fan, as well as Bruce Springsteen, whose bleak "Nebraska" album was inspired in part by the book.


UPDATE: Make that "Old Dead PEOPLE".

Unmistakable character actress Zelda Rubinstein (76), has passed away. Taken off of life support systems last December, she finally drew her final breath. Zelda is best remembered for playing medium Tangina Barrons in the Poltergeist trilogy. Other films include Under The Rainbow, Sixteen Candles, and Southland Tales, as well as a stint on TV's Picket Fences.

There you go - you have your three.