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an extension of the Glass series—which now seemed interminable—regardless of the joys it offered the author. In general, the reviews of Raise High and Seymour were less antagonistic than they had been for Franny and Zooey, but the critics delivered a collective moan over the prospect that this book too would be followed by yet another Glass saga. They called for an end to the series in no uncertain terms. The New York Times Book Review accused Salinger of the “self-indulgence of a writer flirting with depths of wisdom, yet coy and embarrassed in his advances.”12 But it was Time magazine that boldly revealed the underlying exasperation that many critics felt but were reluctant to divulge. “The grown reader,” Time quipped sarcastically, “is beginning to wonder whether the sphinxlike Seymour had a secret worth sharing. And if so, when Salinger is going to reveal it.”13

The triumph of Franny and Zooey had taught Salinger that he could expect vindication from average readers regardless of the critics’ derision. And when Raise High and Seymour was released, readers once again came to his defense. The book was an immediate success, quickly selling more than 100,000 copies and seizing the coveted number one spot on the New York Times best-seller list. The sales of Raise High and Seymour did not match those of Franny and Zooey, but the achievement of Franny and Zooey had been so enormous that it did not matter. Raise High and Seymour was still a literary sensation and the third-best-selling book of 1963.

In response, Salinger acknowledged the debt that he owed to the readers who honored his work against critical advice. In the second printing of Raise High and Seymour, he included a belated dedication to his readers that tenderly equated them with members of his own family. The dedication delivers appreciation to average readers as well as scorn to professional critics. Among the book’s most enduring statements, it has become one of the most famous literary dedications of all time:

If there is an amateur reader still left in the world—or anybody who just reads and runs—I ask him or her, with untellable affection and gratitude, to split the dedication of this book four ways with my wife and children.14

Twenty-four years after it was delivered, Salinger proved that he had learned Whit Burnett’s lesson well. His respect for his readers and his faith that they would feel the inspiration of his message had once again rescued his career. With the world around him receding, his own family becoming distant, and his friends fading, it was the average reader who rose to save him: the bird-watchers, Faulkner’s beloved silent readers. For the rest, Salinger’s attitude was plain: damn them all.

*Salinger harbored some bitterness toward his mother-in-law and her second husband after they took in Claire and Peggy in 1957. Because her father was wary of allowing too much contact between Jean Douglas and Salinger’s family, Peggy Salinger reports the 1962 trip to Barbados as being the first time she ever met her grandmother. Although Claire and the children visited Jean with increasing frequency in subsequent years, a certain remoteness always permeated the relationship between mother and daughter.

*$75,000 was an enormous sum of money in 1963. Salinger’s consideration of the fee proves his intention to continue publishing and his confidence in the quality of his forthcoming projects.

18. Farewell

Two weeks before the release of Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour—an Introduction in January 1963, the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center celebrated the centennial of Swami Vivekananda’s birth with a banquet at New York City’s Warwick Hotel. The keynote speaker for the occasion was U Thant, secretary-general of the United Nations, who spoke of Vivekananda’s contribution to promoting understanding among diverse peoples and the center’s dedication to world peace. Positioned at the foremost banquet table, almost directly in front of the podium, was J. D. Salinger, who had just approved the finishing touches to his next book. A group