Brother, Can You Spare A Salinger?
When I travel, I am often struck by who makes it on to the local money. Recently, when I was in the Czech Republic, I saw John Amos Comenius on the 200 crown note. Comenius was an educational theorist and philosopher, someone I have long admired. When I lived in Mexico, the poet Juana Ines De La Cruz was on the 1000 peso note. My wife is in her Carl Nielson phase. That composer is on the Danish 100 kroner bill.
It’s difficult to imagine America honoring artists and intellectuals – and I mean honoring them at all, much less on money. But let’s try. I propose that the following Americans appear on the following denominations.
the penny – Dave Brubeck and Paul Desmond
the nickel – Josephine Baker
the dime – J. D. Salinger
the quarter – Leonard Bernstein
the half-dollar – John Steinbeck
the silver dollar coin – Anne Sexton
the golden dollar coin – Phillis Wheatley
the paper dollar – Allen Ginsberg
two dollars – Langston Hughes
five dollars – W. E. B. DuBois
ten dollars – Betty Freidan
twenty dollars – Charles Ives
fifty dollars – Jackson Pollock
one-hundred dollars – Diane Arbus
five-hundred dollars – Louise Nevelson
one thousand dollars – Mark Rothko
five thousand dollars – John Singer Sargent
ten thousand dollars – Margaret Mead
one hundred thousand dollars – John Dewey