J.D. Salinger’s small-but-influential oeuvre is now available as a digital download.
Little, Brown this week published e-book editions of the influential author’s four texts: “The Catcher In the Rye,” “Nine Stories,” “Franny and Zooey,” and “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction.”
A recluse famous for his obsessively private life, Salinger’s aversion to technology kept his work offline for decades.
Nearly 10 years after his death, though, son Matt—an actor and producer who helps run the J.D. Salinger Literary Trust—is changing all that.
In hopes of making his father’s work accessible to new generations, the younger Salinger has finally brought these famous tales to digital readers worldwide.
“This is the last chip to fall in terms of the classic works,” Terry Adams, vice president, digital and paperback publisher of Little, Brown, told The New York Times. “All of the other estates of major 20th century writers have made the move to e-books, but Matt has been very cautious.”
J.D. Salinger (Photo Credit:
Bettmann / Contributor / Getty Images)
“I hear his voice really clearly in my head,” the Salinger heir said, “and there’s no doubt in my mind about 96 percent of the decisions I have to make, because I know what he would have wanted.”
Hence why you’ll probably never seen a big-screen adaptation of Holden Caulfield, or a tote bag emblazoned with the “Nine Stories” logo.
“Things like e-books and audiobooks are tough, because he clearly didn’t want them,” Matt added.
He began to reconsider the idea, though, about five years ago, when a woman wrote to him about a disability that makes it difficult for her to read printed books.
Then, on a recent trip to China, Matt realized that many young people overseas read exclusively on digital services, and e-books may be his best chance to introduce his father’s writing to them.
J.D. Salinger “was leery of many things,” Matt said, “but he had a profound love for his readers. He wouldn’t want people to not be able to read his stuff.”
This fall, fans can visit the New York Public Library to see the first public exhibition of Salinger’s personal archives, including letters, family photographs, and the typescript for “The Catcher In the Rye”—complete with the author’s handwritten edits.
Matt, only five when Salinger published his final story, “Hapworth 16, 1924,” is also working to release his father’s unprinted writing—a project estimated to take another five to seven years.
“I wanted people to know that yes, he did keep writing, there’s a lot of material, and yes, it will be published,” he told the Times.
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