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A32 FEATURE
Friday 18 OctOber 2019
Library exhibit offers glimpse into Salinger's life and work

By HILLEL ITALIE Kelly said. "It (the exhibit)
Associated Press reveals Salinger the man —
NEW YORK (AP) — As he in terms of simple hobbies,
worked on early drafts of the modesty, the quotidian
"The Catcher in the Rye," aspects of his life. There's
a novel which proved nothing fancy or frilly about
both scandalous and life- Salinger."
changing, J.D. Salinger Salinger's career as an au-
considered adding his gen- thor is captured through
eration's idea of a trigger clippings of his early sto-
alert. ries, manuscripts, copies of
"I think there's going to be his books and letters to his
a lot of swearing and sexy publishers. A working draft
stuff in this book," warns of "Franny and Zooey" was
narrator Holden Caulfield, titled "Ivanoff the Terrible,
in a paragraph on page subtitled, "An Ontologi-
18 of Salinger's manuscript, cal Comic Drama With a
part of an upcoming ex- Little Morning Music," and
hibition at the New York included an opening sec-
Public Library. "I can't help tion which apparently re-
it. You'll probably think I'm fers to his years as a coun-
a very dirty guy and that I ter-intelligence officer in
come from a terrible family A copy of the 1951 novel "The Catcher in the Rye" is part of a J.D. Salinger exhibit being installed Europe during World War
and all." at the New York Public Library, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019, in New York. II. (Salinger fans had long
"The trouble is," Holden Associated Press wondered whether "Iva-
adds, "everybody swears noff" was a separate, unre-
all the time. And every- he allowed to come out in proached me with plans watch. A bookcase from leased book).
body's pretty sexy." his lifetime — "The Catcher for his centennial year my his bedroom includes "The "Early in the Normandy
Salinger apparently in the Rye," ''Franny and immediate reaction was Oxford Book of Detective campaign, we were issued
changed his mind. He drew Zooey," ''Nine Stories" and that he would not like the Stories," a collection of Rob- little olive-drab crystal balls
a large X through the pas- "Raise High the Roof Beam, attention," Matt Salinger ert Browning poems and to help pass the time in the
sage and wrote "delete" Carpenters and Seymour: wrote. "He was a famously three volumes on "Zen and foxholes," Salinger writes,
in the margins. Starting in An Introduction." And for private man who shared the Zen Classics," reflect- a reference to the D-Day
1951, when the book was the first time ever, the liter- his work with millions, but ing his immersion in Eastern invasion, when he was
published, millions of read- ary estate authorized e- his life and non-published religion and philosophy. among those landing on
ers would discover the truth book editions. thoughts with less than a Letters to his literary repre- Utah Beach. "Mine came
for themselves. Salinger's estate is overseen handful of people, includ- sentatives document his with a rather ominous look-
The library exhibit, titled "JD in part by his son, Matt Sa- ing me. But I've learned immersion in the publishing ing crack in it, but I see a
Salinger," opens Friday and linger, who has also said that while he may have process, from sales and roy- few things, I see a few
runs through Jan. 19 at the that readers will, at some only fathered two children alties to the cover design of things ..."
historic 5th Avenue branch point, see the books his there are a great, great paperbacks. The one-room library exhibit
in Manhattan. It continues father worked on after many readers out there Declan Kiely, the library's di- tracks Salinger's life. There
a surprisingly eventful cen- he stopped publishing in who have their own rather rector of special collections are childhood photos and
tennial for Salinger, who the 1960s. In announcing profound relationships with and exhibitions, said that images from his military ser-
died in 2010 and avoided the exhibit last week, the him, through his work, and the materials on display vice, many highlighting his
publicity for much of his younger Salinger cited the who have long wanted an demonstrated Salinger's dark eyes, extended jaw
writing life. His literary es- public's lasting curiosity. opportunity to get to know "meticulousness, possibly and the hint of a Holden-
tate approved new print "When my father's long- him better." bordering on the obses- like smirk. Pictures from the
editions for the first time in time publisher, Little, Brown Drawing upon archives sive," although "obsessive in 1960s and 1970s with his
decades of the four books and Company, first ap- made available by Matt a good way." children, Matt and Marga-
Salinger, the exhibit is not "You have to be obses- ret, capture Salinger in mid-
the tell-all that some fans sive to produce a body of dle age, in rural Cornish,
might have wanted. There work, to be true to your art," New Hampshire. q
are no unreleased novels
or stories, and no images of
Salinger's widow, Colleen
Salinger, or of the mother
of Salinger's two children,
Claire Douglas. His affair
in the early 1970s with au-
thor Joyce Maynard, a
college student when he
befriended her, is not men-
tioned. But the library does
offer an eclectic, revela-
tory and sometimes quirky
range of materials, from a
Royal manual typewriter
An early draft of the 1951 novel "The Catcher in the Rye" is part to a bowl Salinger made A typewriter, tobacco pipes, and eye glasses are part of a J.D.
of a J.D. Salinger exhibit being installed at the New York Public as a boy to videocassettes Salinger exhibit being installed at the New York Public Library,
Library, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019, in New York. of Marx Brothers comedies Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2019, in New York.
Associated Press and other films he liked to Associated Press