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Letters to J. D. Salinger

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As J.D. Salinger, famous reclusive author of "Catcher in the Rye," rebuffs all requests for interviews and is said to consign fan letters to the garbage, most of these letters have a tenuous air. At least the writers can be assured their letters will be read, if not by Mr. Salinger (shame on him!), by other Salinger junkies.

The letters are divided into sections from Writers and Readers, Students and Teachers, and From the Web. The letters run the gamut from a touching letter to Holden "thanks for being your sixteen year old self forever" from Alma Luz Villanueva to a question from Joanne Cavanaugh Simpson: " In the end, I guess you, like Holden, decided not to ever tell anybody anything again. But even so, don't you miss everybody?"

Some letters are in the form of poems, some are breezy and informal ("Howzit goin' Jerry?"), others are painfully stiff, but almost all have the hope that J.D. will at some date, sometime read them. There is the query from a young poet in England that would like to know the proper pronunciation of "Zooey" since that is his name. His mother, in an excess of enthusiasm for Salinger, named him after that notable character, but never was quite sure how it was pronounced. An admiring e-mail from Nicole Corrow says, "--you're SO *fantastically* BRILLIANT you could make me relate to a whisk broom." The only one I found one huge yawn was a woman who quoted a rigidly boring section (looong) of her doctoral thesis in hopes, I presume, the master would read it and be properly impressed.

Editor Chris Kubica provides a lively introduction and Will Hochman does the honors in a postscript that nicely summarizes what we have read. I found the book sometimes amusing and frequently thoughtful. This is a handsomely produced book that would make a nice gift to your favorite Salingerophile.

I a longtime reader of Salinger, instead of speaking about the letters to him add one of my own.


Dear J. D. Salinger,

It's been a long time, too long for me to believe. Those teenage years reading and rereading 'The Catcher in the Rye', and loving and enjoying its language and its special attitude towards the world. That defiance, quixotic gesture, crazy indescribable something , that only Holden had.
And then for the college years reading all I could get my hands on that you had written. And somehow here too identifying with the Glass family and my namesake Seymour (See- more) and finding in the love of literature and language again something inspiring , and hope-giving.
And I sense that something of all that did have a major influence on my life , did lead me to hear the sound of my own drummer, though I suspect my father and his story was the greater part of this.
Yet with the years I must admit that there has come a certain if not disillusionment then diminishment. I am sure it relates to the path I took in my life. I made my religious way by going back to where I thought I came from. To the Jewish people the Jewish religion, Israel. The Jewish half- side of you was more style and shtick than substance. And you found your religious home not in Tannach, (The Old Testament) but in the religious works of the Far East. Seymour Glass writes his double- barreled 'haiku' as his major literary creation. None of the Glasses know or care much about anything Jewish in religious terms.
I don't say this as criticism, but rather as simply pointing out that I went a different way. And that this means 'spiritually' you in these latter years as I have felt it little to give me.
Nonetheless I would very much like to thank you for the great pleasure and consolation your works have giben me through the years.
I would also like to thank you for the idea you gave me in speaking about Kafka Kierkegaard Van Gogh of a certain kind of literary creation,that I have in some way found myself devoted to.
I would like to thank you for teaching me a certain kind of love of literature and of life.
Your old and growing older admiring reader,
S.Freedman

Collaboratively edited by Chris Kubica (operator of the jdsalinger.com website) and Will Hochman (Assistant Professor of English, Southern Connecticut State University) Letters To J. D. Salinger is a remarkable compendium over more than one hundred and fifty personal letters addressed to J. D. Salinger, the renowned American author of the timeless classic "The Catcher in the Rye." The diverse impressions and emotions of people from all walks of life who were influenced by Salinger's literary masterpiece makes for a rewarding reading with insight into the depths of the power truly great writing can have upon a human generation. Letters To J. D. Salinger is a unique and highly recommended reading for the legions of J. D. Salinger enthusiasts.