Lot 218

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Salinger J. D.

J. D. Salinger, Completing "Catcher In The Rye" in Westport, CT in 1950, Pens an ALS


Single page ALS, 8.5" x 11". Neatly penned entirely in the hand of Salinger from his rental home in Westport, CT. Dated by the accompanying postmarked envelope indicating "Westport / May 13 / 1950 / Conn", and scripted within the body of the letter as "Box #365 Westport, Sunday / May 13". The letter was written to "Joyce" (Joyce Miller), and signed by J.D. Salinger as "Yrs, Jerry". Letter with expected folds, toning, a few tiny pin holes and crimping, else near fine. Accompanied by the autographed original mailing envelope, 9.5" x 4", with Salinger's return address as "Box 365 / Westport, CT" to "Miss Joyce Miller …".

Envelope folded, overall grubby, neatly opened along top seam which affected Salinger's return address.

JD pens a jubilant, playful and suggestive letter to Joyce Miller who was on the staff of The New Yorker in the late 1940s and early 1950s, when J. D. Salinger was publishing stories in the magazine and working on his novel, The Catcher in the Rye. In the spring of 1950, when Salinger was living in Westport, Connecticut, and Miller in White Plains, the two developed a close relationship whose clarity is not completely understood. These were complex years for Salinger, post the trauma of World War II, in the throes of writing his infamous novel Catcher In The Rye, while serial dating extremely young woman. Salinger's MO would often find him platonically romancing woman for years but upon the introduction of physical intimacy, would become disinterested and end the relationship. It was during this period, circa 1949, that at least one of these known relationships later came to light, that of Jean Miller, age 14 in 1949 whom he had a 5 year platonic relationship up until the very end which resulted both in intimacy and the end of the relationship. We know through a recent series of letters that this may have been the case with yet another, including that of Joyce Miller


His letter to Miller dated within a year of the publication of Catcher In The Rye, pines to Joyce "Next Friday, the 19th, an old friend of mine in N.Y. is throwing a May Wine party in the late afternoon. Will you go with me? We could meet at, say, the Biltmore around 6:15, then later on have dinner and drive back to White Plains. I hope you can make it / Yrs, Jerry"

Whether it was Jean Miller in 1949, Joyce Miller in the 1940s and early 50s or later in Salinger's life, Maynard in 1972, it is believed that Salinger “was having these women replicate a pre-war innocence for him, and used very young girls as time travel machines back to before various wounds. So there’s something immensely heartbreaking about this rather problematic pursuit.” That pursuit, admitted Miller, “raises havoc in the muse’s life … That short story ‘The Girl With No Waist at All’ really represents [Salinger’s interest in] the moment before a girl becomes a woman.”


The mystery of where J. D. Salinger lived in Westport while he put his finishing touches on The Catcher in the Rye in 1949 is now closer to being solved, thanks to the release of the first new biography of the celebrated writer in a decade.


We now know that Salinger rented a home on Old Road, off the Post Road. "Westport, CT is the birthplace of The Catcher in the Rye". And the paper and ink, but more important the sentiment, return to Westport until it finds a new home.


An incredibly important letter from 1950 pulling together a confluence of relevant points. On this one single page, written just months before Catcher In The Rye was published, Salinger's ALS pulls together life themes from the birthplace of his famed novel. Those of his pursuit of innocence, complexities of his relationships with the opposite sex, while in the background woven through the body of the letter (which interestingly mirrors the writing style of "Catcher"), Salinger demonstrates the dry humor as his protagonist "Holden Caulfield". Salinger writes " I'd better plod back to Connecticut, where all my chores are (the same stray sense of duty that, in the Army, slot me up through the ranks from private to private First Class in four short years.)"


While reading the ALS, one cannot be sure whether "Catcher's" protagonist Holden Caulfield, or J.D. Salinger himself, wrote this letter. A quintessential revealing and important letter by this ever complicated author, among the most desired authors in collecting history.



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