J. D. Salinger_ A Life - Kenneth Slawenski [191]
By 1960, even this lukewarm opposition to the prospect of Catcher’s suppression had melted away into fatalistic acceptance. Once again, Salinger gave his work as an excuse for that fatalism. For some years he had received a number of letters from a relentless graduate student named Donald Fiene. He was a former high school English teacher who had been dismissed from his position for recommending The Catcher in the Rye to his students. Now a lecturer at the University of Louisville in pursuit of his master’s degree, he had set himself the daunting task of compiling a complete bibliography of all Salinger works and translations for his master’s dissertation. After several letters asking for Salinger’s help went unanswered, Fiene was stunned to receive a response from the author in September 1960. In it, Salinger apologized for being unable to help Fiene in his project but went on to address his personal feelings concerning the debate that raged over Catcher’s suppression. “It distresses me very much,” Salinger wrote, “and I often wonder if there isn’t something I can do about it.” He said he had decided to ignore the controversy completely. He explained to Fiene that in order to devote himself to the new work he was currently “buried under,” he had chosen to let go of his feelings of responsibility toward old works.7
• • •
During the first week of June 1962, Franny and Zooey was published in Great Britain. After the falling-out with Hamish Hamilton, Salinger attempted to withdraw from personal contact with publishers, while demanding yet greater control over his products’ presentation. He placed Ober Associates in charge of locating a suitable agent for him in England. Olding chose Hughes Massie & Co., which also managed Harper Lee, and assigned it the task of finding a publisher for Franny and Zooey. Among the first publishing houses to place a bid was Hamish Hamilton, which offered £10,000 for rights that, legally, it already possessed. Salinger ignored the offer by Hamilton and accepted a £4,000 bid by William Heinemann instead. Jamie Hamilton could well have sued Salinger for breach of contract but chose not to in an attempt to put an end to what he would later describe as the most painful experience of his career.
For William Heinemann and Hughes Massie, however, the pain was only just beginning. They soon experienced the exasperation that for Little, Brown and Company had become routine. Salinger immediately sought to apply the same level of perfection he demanded of himself to his new agent and publisher. When Salinger’s agents drew up the Heinemann contract in March 1962, it came with a series of demands so meticulous in their details as to have made them inconceivable when Heinemann placed its bid. The contract stipulated that no publicity was to be issued without Salinger’s consent. No photograph of him was to appear on the book’s jacket. All advertisements were to be submitted to Salinger for approval. And no quotes “favorable or unfavorable” were to be used.8 William Heinemann signed the contract regardless.
When Salinger received an advance copy of the British Franny and Zooey in May (one can only imagine that, after the consequences of not having obtained a copy of For Esmé from Hamilton, this too was a stipulation), he immediately wrote to his agent at Hughes Massie. The Heinemann version of Franny and Zooey adhered to all of his demands but still looked cheap to him. Salinger claimed that the book reminded him of “something any