Description:

J.D. Salinger
n.p., December 23, [1971]
J.D. Salinger Lengthy TLS Re: Boarding School, Identity Crises, and Other Holden-esque Adolescent Difficulties
TLS

Jerome David Salinger (1919-2010). Typed Letter Signed, "Jerry," 2pp, on two sheets of his usual goldenrod colored stationery measuring 8.5" x 11", no place, December 23, [1971]. With a few typographical edits in pencil. Accompanied by the original 6.5" x 3.5" transmittal envelope to which Salinger has inscribed "AIR MAIL" in capital letters. Expected mailing folds and creases. Light soiling. In near fine condition. Portions of the letter have been electronically redacted to protect the privacy of the author and the letter's recipient. The letter itself has no redaction and is legible in full.

Salinger wrote this letter to close friend Eileen Paddison, a fellow writer with whom Salinger corresponded for over ten years. A lengthy and intriguing letter, in which the reclusive author admits he understands what she is going through, grappling with a mixed identity, and finding his escape in boarding school: "Boarding schools have a bad name, but they oddly suit some kinds of kids." It was Salinger's boarding school experience coupled with intrinsic alienation that formed the basis for his most acclaimed novel, "The Catcher in the Rye" (1951).

Salinger's letters to Paddison express a kinship that exceeds every other correspondent, including romantic partners and family. He is particularly open in the present letter and elucidates how the similarity in their lives that led him to feel "a gigantic comfort" in her friendship. Salinger found it "extraordinary" that they shared the same combination of half-Irish, half-Jewish backgrounds. He posits whether his intense dislike of privacy loss is one of the results, and whether she experiences the same thing. The layers of coincidence led him to wonder if the two might be connected on even deeper levels, "You weren't by any chance born on Jan 1st, too?" In a burst of personal insight, Salinger reveals that his own "significant mixtures in lineage" may be the basis for Holden's troubled nature: "In my day, when it wasn't a burden – or worse, an onus – it was...a mixup in identity…psychological or social…" All in all, the effect was "a fairly rotten form of self-consciousness."

The precocious teenager who received this letter was just over the age of Salinger's most famous literary creation, Holden Caulfield, and the same age as Salinger had been during his stint in boarding school. It was a time that left an indelible mark on Salinger's life, which he recalled in perfect detail as he wrote about the petty dramas of school children years later. He commiserates with Eileen: "Sorry things went wrong with your roommate…Is the basement room all right? Not damp? Dark?" He comments on the amount of "old-fashioned horse's ass" in young men, and how he can't stand stories about stealing, which tend to depress him. This, as well, he chalks up as a "throwback to my own boarding-school days."

Though rare for the reclusive author, Salinger deems to comment directly on his own fiction in this letter, confessing how it "amused hell out of me" to write the car scene in "Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters" (1955). And he talks about the fact that he is still writing; a fact of particular importance because as of the date of this letter, Salinger never allowed his newly written work to be read by another person. To this day, more than a decade after the author's death, Salinger's later work remains a mystery.

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8.5" x 11"
  • Medium: TLS

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