J. D. Salinger_ A Life - Kenneth Slawenski [207]
After purchasing the adjoining farm in 1966, Salinger had decided that the apartment above the garage had become too small, and he built a house for himself across the road from the cottage. The new structure contained a large study, and he stripped his studio bunker of its furnishings and accessories—including his venerable typewriter and car seat throne—transferring them into the new home. Claire and the children remained in the cottage, and Salinger’s move was the de facto end of their marriage.
Four weeks after Claire’s divorce filing, Salinger took Peggy and Matthew to New York, ostensibly for a dentist visit 250 miles from home. Rooming in Midtown’s Drake Hotel, Salinger was reading in bed when he became drawn to the sight of his children sleeping next to him. Describing the evening a week later, he was still awestruck by the memory, clearly infatuated with his own children. “I loved sitting up in bed … watching their sleeping bodies in the same room,” he recalled. “The point is, I love going anywhere with them.”3
Salinger’s divorce was not easy, a fact aggravated by his apparent unwillingness to discuss the topic with family or friends. Just as he had during his separation in 1957, he tended to ignore the subject, perhaps hoping the conflict would mend itself and go away. This time, however, the divide ran too deep for reconciliation and the history of neglect had grown too long. Salinger was forced to admit that he had lost his wife, and he began to deal with that reality. But the prospect of losing his children was unbearable.
The court granted the divorce on September 13, 1967, effective on October 3. Claire was awarded custody of the children, with Salinger given visitation rights. He was ordered to pay support in the sum of $8,000 a year with the understanding that he was obliged to pay for private school and college for the children. The cottage was also awarded to Claire, as were the original 90 acres of property with the stipulation that were Claire to sell the land, she would offer it first to Salinger for repurchase. Salinger was left with the 1966 land acquisition, his jeep, and the new house.4
At first glance, it might appear that the settlement stripped Salinger of much of what he had worked for over the years. Yet, had Claire not been awarded the cottage and property, it is hard to imagine that she would have remained in Cornish after the divorce. She most likely would have fled to New York City, perhaps farther; and she would have taken the children. Even with the agreement, it is still amazing that Claire remained in Cornish after so many years of apparently feeling like a prisoner there.
So, for the most part, the Salingers’ lives remained the same after the divorce. J.D. and Claire were now neighbors. There was little difference between his visiting the cottage from his new home across the road and making the occasional appearance from his writing bunker or garage apartment. Most important, both did an admirable job protecting the children from the divorce process. Whatever acrimony existed between the couple was kept as far from the children as possible, and for Peggy and Matthew especially, life went on remarkably unchanged. Each saw both parents constantly. Claire indulged the children with riding and tennis lessons (which Salinger mocked incessantly but agreed to nonetheless), while Salinger taught them how to play baseball and a rural version of stoop ball, the hallmarks of his own childhood. The children attended summer camp and continued their annual vacations to Florida. Salinger continued to make