Salinger: “Recluse” with an ugly history of women

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 01:20:00 +0000

In all of the many heartfelt (and deserved) eulogies about author J.D. Salinger, who died last week at 91, one word appears over and over. It is, of course, "recluse." The headline on the Los Angeles Times blog post about his death read, "J.D. Salinger, reclusive author of 'The Catcher in the Rye,' dies at 91." New York magazine called him "the world's most celebrated literary recluse," and the New York Times said that the author had "lived in seclusion for more than 50 years."

Mikki Halpin

Thu, 05 Oct 2000 19:30:00 +0000

When Mikki Halpin suggested in an essay, "A Girl's Guide to Geek Guys" (Bunnyhop.com) that the perfect mate is "a man of substance, quietude and stability, a cerebral creature with a culture all his own," she made an irrefutable case for geeks everywhere. The essay, which she co-wrote with Victoria Maat, transformed the pair into experts on all things geek and has now been published on over 300 Web sites and in five languages. Her first book, "The Geek Handbook" (Pocket Books), reads like an instruction manual and includes chapters such as "The Inner Geek," "Common Geek Bugs and Suggestions for Fixes," and "Your Geek's Role in the New Economy." According to Halpin, you have a geek in your life if he or she, among other things, "consumes ten cans of soda a day" and "rushes home on [their] lunch break to get in an hour of SimCity."

Halpin was editor in chief of the online magazine Stim and has written for various publications including Wired, BookForum, Studio Mix, The Independent, and BUST. These days, Halpin is a senior editor at Oxygen network and lives in New York City.

Salon.com > Mikki Halpin

Salinger: “Recluse” with an ugly history of women

Mikki Halpin