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Perhaps unknown to Salinger at the time, the amazing serendipity of relationships that had blessed him throughout his life was at an end. No figure would arise to fill the gap left by departing friends or provide comfort when he needed affirmation. Those who had fallen away would now leave only empty spaces, reminders of just how far removed Salinger’s ballroom chair had become.

On July 2, 1961, Ernest Hemingway, Salinger’s friend and strength during the war, committed suicide at his home in Idaho. Six weeks later, on August 18, Judge Learned Hand, Salinger’s closest friend and confidant, passed away in New York. For Salinger, the music had begun to fade into silence. The seclusion begun by his work habits and hardened by the media had evolved into a loneliness that was locked into place by the fatalism he embraced.

Salinger did not deliberately choose to withdraw from the world. His isolation was an insidious progression that slowly enveloped him. Sadly, he recognized the shadows descending but felt powerless to change course. His work had become a holy obligation, and he accepted that loneliness and seclusion might well be the price it demanded for fulfillment. In the jacket flap autobiography he wrote for Franny and Zooey, Salinger shared those feelings with the public. He confessed that he felt himself vanishing into his work and confided, “there is a real enough danger, I suppose, that sooner or later I’ll bog down, perhaps disappear entirely, in my own methods, locutions, and mannerisms.” He still held out hope that he would survive the demands of his calling. “On the whole, though,” he stated, “I am very hopeful.”6 Yet nowhere in his public confession was there any indication that he was willing to alter the path he was now traveling. To the outside world, this was proof that he had left his life to the whims of fate. But to Salinger himself, he was simply obeying the will of God. It would never have occurred to him to do otherwise.

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As successful as Franny and Zooey had been, Salinger’s reputation still rested upon The Catcher in the Rye, which, in 1960, had slipped back onto the New York Times best-seller list (at number five) and by 1962 had sold more than two million copies. It is therefore perplexing that Salinger remained silent when the novel was severely opposed by libraries, school boards, and faculties, potentially eliminating a vast segment of youthful readers who had kept its sales thriving.

The Catcher in the Rye was first challenged in 1954 by a school board in California. Since then, many dozens of attempts have been made to censor the book, demanding that schools ban it from the classroom and forbid their instructors from recommending the novel. Libraries, school boards, and parents’ groups have cited Holden’s use of profanity and his attitudes toward authority, sexuality, and education as reasons to suppress his voice. Catcher’s success propelled this controversy. The more popular the novel became, the more often it was opposed. Catcher may have been suitable for certain college curriculums, but as its popularity grew among academics, high school teachers began to suggest the book to their students. Some even tested the system by teaching the novel openly in the classroom. When they did, Catcher’s effect upon students was immediate. Many embraced Holden Caulfield as articulating their own deepest feelings. But parents were often appalled to find their children enraptured by a character they considered to be indecent and profane, one who drinks, smokes, and curses while visiting cocktail lounges and paying prostitutes. The resulting furor put The Catcher in the Rye into a curious position. In a 1962 survey, California college professors placed the novel at the top of their list of titles to recommend to their students. At the same time, Catcher was quickly becoming the most banned book in the United States.

Salinger is known to have made only one public statement on the issue and even that statement is diluted by the fact that it was