New York Public Library To Present Rare J.D. Salinger Archive

MIDTOWN MANHATTAN, NY — The rare archives of famed author J.D. Salinger will go on display this month at the New York Public Library's main branch in Midtown Manhattan, library officials announced Monday.

Salinger's son Matt Salinger and widow Colleen Salinger have donated hundreds of the "Catcher in the Rye" author's manuscripts, photographs, letters and personal items such as typewriters for the exhibit, library officials said. The items will be open to the public starting Oct. 18 and the exhibit will run until Jan. 19, 2020.

The exhibit coincides with the 100th anniversary of Salinger's birth. Salinger's son Matt said that his immediate reaction to the exhibit was that his intensely private father would not like the attention, but he decided to go forward with the exhibit as a service to his father's readers.

"In short, while I’ve long respected and honored (and zealously protected) his privacy, I also have come to see the value in sharing a direct and uninterpreted glimpse of his life with those readers who want it, and who want to mark his 100th year in some personal way," Matt Salinger said in a statement.

One of the most interesting items in the Salinger archive offers a glimpse of how the author viewed his own work. The description of his life comes from a 1982 legal document.

"I have been writing fiction rather passionately, singlemindedly, perhaps insatiably, since I was fifteen or so . . . I positively rejoice to imagine that, sooner or later, the finished product safely goes to the ideal private reader, alive or dead or yet unborn, male or female or possibly neither," Salinger's description reads.

Other items in the archive include the original typescript of "Catcher in the Rye," scripts for Salinger's other fictional works including "Franny" and "Zooey," photographs from Salinger's childhood and his World War II service, Salinger's personal bookcase and letters between Salinger and contemporaries such as William Maxwell, and Ernest Hemingway.

"This exhibition presents Salinger in his own words," Declan Kiely, New York Public Library Director of Special Collections and Exhibitions. "It provides fresh insight into his writing process, his views on the design and appearance of his books, his network of friendships with school and army buddies—some spanning over half a century—as well as with fellow authors and New Yorker magazine editors."