Two Powerful Literary Voices Gone

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As a reader, I am mourning the passing of two great literary voices...

J.D. Salinger

Generations of students and teachers have been forever changed by author J.D. Salinger and his acclaimed novel The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger, the reclusive author of Catcher and numerous other books and stories, has died, but his stories live on in the canons of great literature. Although Holden Caulfield is Salinger's best-known character, most of Salinger's writing featured incredibly intelligent, sensitive, children or adults who had trouble functioning in the real world. Many would say that J.D. Salinger was writing about himself as the Catcher in the Rye.

Howard Zinn

We also mourn the loss of author, activist, historian and beloved folk hero Howard Zinn. I don't know how many knew this, but it was Howard Zinn who protected copies of the Pentagon Papers for Daniel Ellsberg, and even hid them in his apartment for awhile. Zinn, never afraid to stand up against injustice, testified as an expert witness at Daniel Ellsberg's criminal trial.

Ellsberg writes that his friend is “the best human being I’ve ever known [and] the best example of what a human can be.” I would say that kind of sums up Howard Zinn's life.

Author of "A People's History of the United States" (1980) and numerous other works, Zinn surveyed all of American history from the point of view of the working classes and minority groups. He documented the history of race, sex, and class; the history of civil disobedience; how his hope for a more egalitarian society had been frustrated, and how a small, upper-class elite had retained its hold on power and wealth.