[Ads-l] Wilhelm Stekel attribution in Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye"

ADSGarson O'Toole adsgarsonotoole at GMAIL.COM
Sun Nov 25 08:46:44 UTC 2018


Way back in March 2017 I sent a request to the list about a quotation
attributed to Wilhelm Stekel in J. D. Salinger's novel "The Catcher in
the Rye". The request was rapidly satisfied.

Other difficulties delayed the research, but now the work has reached
a closure, and the Quote Investigator website has an article:

The Mark of the Immature Man Is That He Wants To Die Nobly for a
Cause, While the Mark of the Mature Man Is That He Wants To Live
Humbly for One
https://quoteinvestigator.com/2018/11/24/mature/

Thanks; feedback welcome,
Garson O'Toole
On Sat, Mar 11, 2017 at 1:02 PM ADSGarson O'Toole
<adsgarsonotoole at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> A character in J. D. Salinger's modern classic "The Catcher in the
> Rye" references a quotation attributed to Wilhelm Stekel who was an
> early follower of Freud:
>
> [Begin excerpt]
> He went over to this desk on the other side of the room, and without
> sitting down wrote something on a piece of paper. Then he came back
> and sat down with the paper in his hand. "Oddly enough, this wasn't
> written by a practicing poet. It was written by a psychoanalyst named
> Wilhelm Stekel. Here's what he—Are you still with me?"
>
> "Yes, sure I am."
>
> "Here's what he said: The mark of the immature man is that he wants to
> die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he
> wants to live humbly for one.'"
> [End except]
>
> I received an inquiry on this topic and located a germane scholarly
> article behind a steep paywall. (Thirty days access for $102.) If you
> have access to this document and you are willing to help please
> contact me off-list.
>
> Year: 2013
> Volume 26, Issue 2: Twentieth-Century American Literature
> Periodical: ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes and Reviews
> Article: The Sources of the Stekel Quotation in Salinger's The Catcher
> in the Rye
> Author: Peter G. Beidler
> Pages 71-75
>
> http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0895769X.2013.775049
>
> The Wikiquote webpage for Wilhelm Stekel provides useful information
> in the Misattributed section. The quotation is traced back to German
> writer Otto Ludwig.
> https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Wilhelm_Stekel
>
> Garson

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