Wow, it has been a bad couple days for book lovers and those who value freedom and integrity.
I read this morning that J.D. Salinger has passed. Here is his obit at The New York Times and over at the BBC, plus a post over at Powell's Books.
A really odd cat, but definitely one of our more free-spirited Americans.
Of more personal import is the death of Howard Zinn (obits at The New York Times and The Washington Post, plus the Powell's Books entry).
I've enjoyed Zinn's work on pushing the stories of real Americans to the forefront of our history. More importantly, his work has been critical in making sure we don't whitewash our history or gloss over the hard parts, or even the bad decisions. If you have only been taught Texas conservative Talibangelical/Luddite BS, you know nothing about the history of this nation, warts and all. It is a damned shame too many of our students and only getting the sanitized version.
He didn't report it either: he lived it, fighting during World War II (and losing the taste for war) as well as being a force for chance for change during the Civil Rights era). In this age of Tea Baggery and people proud of their stupidity, we need people like Zinn more than ever.
