Observations: Salinger and the New York Times

After yesterday's emotional entry, I'm a bit of hesitant to take on any particularly meaty topics as they all seem a little forced to me at the moment. The New York Times, wonderful creature that it is, is always willing to supply some food for thought.

Naturally the Times had to write an article on Salinger's life and passing, it's the Times after all. This paragraph caught my attention:

In 1997 Mr. Salinger agreed to let Orchises Press, a small publisher in Alexandria, Va., bring out “Hapwoth” in book form, but he backed out of the deal at the last minute. He never collected the rest of his stories or allowed any of them to be reprinted in textbooks or anthologies.

This is true. However, it ignores something. Salinger reputedly pulled production of Hampworth 16, 1924 because of all of the press' trumpeting. The most notable culprit? The New York Time's Michiko Kakutani, who ultimately concluded a pre-publication review (using a pre-existing copy of the 1965 New Yorker publication of Hapwoth) by calling the novelette:

...a sour, implausible and, sad to say, completely charmless story.

I don't have any dislike for Ms. Kakutani (!). I understand why the Times wouldn't include information like this. But gosh, it's awful funny.