| Analysis: Salinger gave the '50s its perfect novel |
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| By Nick Otten, Special to the Beacon |
| Posted 9:57 am Thu., 1.28.10 |
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Jerome David Salinger died yesterday at age 91. The legendary reclusive novelist was successful beyond the most lurid daydreams of most writers, even though his entire published body of work fit into five volumes. His one novel was "The Catcher in the Rye." He wrote four novellas, which were published as two books, "Franny and Zooey" and "Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters and Seymour, An Introduction." Salinger's only book of short stories was titled "Nine Stories." A little-known novella and his last publication, "Hapworth 16, 1924," was printed in The New Yorker in 1965, but never as a book. In fact, most of Salinger's work was first published in The New Yorker, including two early excerpts from "The Catcher in the Rye." The Novel The small size of Salinger's body of work was entirely by choice. After the enormous success of his still-controversial 1951 novel, "The Catcher in the Rye," Salinger fought vehemently to maintain his personal privacy for the rest of his life. The astounding, continuing success of his single novel made Salinger a wealthy man and an almost uniquely independent writer. When the novel was published more than 50 years ago, it went through three printings "before publication." Nobody doubted that the book would be a huge seller. It was even bigger than huge and came to be an iconic portrait of the soon-to-be alienated generation of the troubled 1960s. read more
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Brent Jones | St. Louis Beacon
This Saturday was the debut of a new show by The Improv Shop that will bring out of town improv teams to St. Louis to play for — and with — a local audience. The Road Show brought teams "Everybody Grok" and "Felt" from Chicago.
We talked to Eric Christensen, producer of the Road Show and member of local improv team "Ted Dangerous"; Katie Nunn, member of "Ted Dangerous" and improv coach; and Melanie Penn and Ranjan Khan, members of local teams "Melanj" and "Magic Ratio"; about the St. Louis improv scene and why it's important to welcome teams from other cities to perform here.
Who owns this field of dreams?
Baseball may be the national pastime, the field of dreams that "reminds us of all that once was good," but it also reflects -- and sometimes anticipates -- the country's social and economic changes. This story is part of a larger look at class in the region, our series Class: The Great Divide
M.W. Guzy fears his daughters' affection for trash TV might have been genetically inherited, as he finds himself drawn to the anybody-but-Mitt show, playing on a loop on cable "news' channels.
Miguel Dulick recounts a trans-Honduras tour that, again, reminded him of the power and joy of keeping siblings and parents connected.
Ken Schechtman says that publicly traded business will not -- perhaps cannot -- put doing the right thing ahead of legally maximizing profits.
In this week's Beacon Roundtable, Dick Weiss, Jason Rosenbaum, Jo Mannies, Robert Joiner and Dale Singer sit down to talk about the Missouri primary and redistricting, the controversy around…
Editor Margaret Wolf Freivogel says the problems that froze the Beacon's site in the past are being fixed: Thank you for your patience.
Ben Finegold checks out the women's play at the Tradewise Gilbraltar Chess Congress, particularly the chess played by 17-year-old Hou Yifan of China.
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The Beacon's nationally recognized Barroom Conversations program on race, class and other issues that divide will be held on Monday, Feb. 20, 2012, at 7:30 PM discussing Education and Class. RSVP on Facebook and invite your friends! We'll pick up where we left off at Six Row Brewing Co., 3690 Forest Park Avenue at Spring. We look forward to seeing you again!

The St. Louis Beacon rang in 2012 with a concert performance of Gilbert & Sullivan's beloved operetta, "The Mikado," at the Sheldon Concert Hall, and the Higher Education Channel was on hand to record it. Here is a link to the complete perfomance, which we hope you'll enjoy.
The musical direction of "The Mikado" was by Amy Kaiser; Craig Terry was conductor-accompanist. All proceeds from ticket sales benefitted the Beacon.