J. D. Salinger_ A Life - Kenneth Slawenski [221]
*Salinger’s statement “Publishing is a terrible invasion of my privacy” is a fascinating insight. It implies that he continued to embed the details of his own life and character into his works. Salinger was writing not only for himself but also of himself, to the extent that his stories amounted to personal revelations that he was uncomfortable sharing with the world.
*When Salinger was asked about letters he had written before and during the war, he would refer to himself in the third person, as “the boy,” explaining to whom “the boy” had been writing and what “the boy” had hoped to convey. Hamilton’s lawyer considered this method of reference odd, as if Salinger saw his youthful self as another person completely.
*The specter of “Hapworth”’s release in hardcover reemerged in 2007, when the publication date was reset for January 1, 2009, Salinger’s ninetieth birthday. Readers and critics justifiably met the announcement with skepticism. It did, however, generate renewed interest in Orchises Press, which by 2007 had gained a reputation for the release of poetry anthologies, a cause Salinger may well have championed.
*Claire admirably reinvented herself. By the mid-1980s, she had obtained a doctorate in psychology and moved to California, where she set up a successful practice. The author of several books, Claire continues to lecture and teach. She has never exploited her marriage to Salinger.
20. Coming Through the Rye
Salinger’s early stories were a real technical breakthrough, and I still hope he will emerge safe on the other side.
—John Updike, 19661
On New Year’s Day 2010, J. D. Salinger turned ninety-one years old. A year earlier, on his ninetieth birthday, countless periodicals and websites had marked the occasion with an enthusiasm normally reserved for Hollywood celebrities. Yet a close look at many of the commemorations revealed them to be not genuine tributes at all but sullen rebukes to an author who had dared to defy the norm. Many used the occasion to chastise him for refusing to publish, while a number went on to rereview “Hapworth,” as if it were 1965. Still, while the tone of resentment varied among the articles, nearly all had an intensity that confirmed the high level of emotion that Salinger’s legacy continued to ignite.
Perhaps the most bizarre—if not cruelly ironic—aspect of many of the pieces was their depiction of the author frozen in time at the age of thirty-two, displaying his image from the original back cover of The Catcher in the Rye. In reality, Salinger was feeling the consequences of old age. Although his mind remained sharp, his thin frame had grown so fragile that he often used a cane, and the loss of hearing he had suffered during the war had degenerated into near-complete deafness. Yet Salinger at ninety had good reason to trust that his remaining years would be peaceful and free from conflict. In fact, he had taken steps to ensure that they would. Seeking to eliminate a dispute over his estate, Salinger had spent much of 2008 putting his legal and financial affairs in order. On July 24, he formally established the J. D. Salinger Literary Trust to prevent any single individual from exercising absolute control over his publications and to ensure the proper disbursement of his works’ financial proceeds on his death. Salinger then renewed his copyright on a number of stories and on October 15 deposited complete rights to all of his publications into the care of the trust, thirty-nine titles in all.2
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Salinger’s expectations of tranquillity were dashed on May 14, 2009, when he was informed of an upcoming book that claimed to be a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye.3 Word of the book had appeared in the British newspaper The Guardian and quickly rippled over the Internet and into the American news.