Salinger J. D.



J. D. Salinger Longest ALS Ever Offered, Addressed to His "old flame"



Six page ALS on three sheets, 7.25" x 10.5", extensively and neatly penned entirely in the hand of Salinger now 19 years post his Catcher In The Rye / Westport Connecticut life. Written on "The Drake, Park Ave, New York" letterhead. Dated by the accompanying postmarked envelope indicating "New York / Feb 19 / 1969", and written within the body of the letter as "Feb 17". The letter was written to "Jerce" (Joyce Miller), and signed by J.D. Salinger as "Love, Jerry". Letter with expected folds, faint toning, and an occasional light stain. Else near fine. Accompanied by the signed and autographed original mailing envelope from "The Drake", 7.5" x 4", with Salinger's return address as "Salinger / Box 32 / Winsor, VT" to "Miss Joyce M Hodgers …" Envelope folded, overall grubby, with some ink smudging, neatly opened along top seam which partly affected Salinger's return address.

J. D. picks up 19 years later with his "old flame", confident, friend, soulmate, and peer 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. However Salinger's letter is tinged with melancholy, describing himself today as "An egoist I remain and a graying child" ending with "Years ago, I half-started to send you two drawings in ink I did, one of you, and, narcissistically, one of me, as we looked to each other, in turn outside your apartment building in White Plains. How many times I've remembered those particular appearances" The two had developed a close relationship 20 years ago, whose clarity was not completely understood, although through his numerous letters to Joyce it was quite clear the two were constantly together, both writers, both artists and had similar friends, lives and views on the world. This lengthy ALS shows lamenting intrigue on the part of Salinger in response to Joyce's inquiry about meeting with him after all this time. His response is not only highly suggestive, but literally invitational as he speaks of being "sole survivors - in a way I've never run into before or again".



"The news of possible marriage sound propitious or so I greatly hope for you. I do wish you wonderful luck, and a lot more … Maybe you'll tell me more when we arrange the meeting you suggested. The meeting's fine with me, very, but what do you really think of it. The idea? Might it not be dicey, one way or another? We're old and tough friends, it's true, but it used to be that we were sole survivors - in a way I've never run into before or again - of the same (illegible) counting under the piano at the birthday party, and it's not easy to imagine that I'd be a likely type to see in all seasons - especially this one. In that single aspect, at least, it's astonishing how little I've changed or even budged from the original position. And you? Similar? The same" Anyway, do weary the notion a little, Joyce. I would like very much not to be a hairy factor in your new 1969 comings and goings.



What I'm saying with unsolicited and probably inept frankness is that I'm quite sure I want to be the second figure in that subway car of your old and for me, idyllic tale. I've thought about it only too often, over the years. Does that seem to you in any way a good for you, a timely good? Please ponder"



"I will be home in the country late Thursday afternoon, and am widely open to thoughts, phone calls, personal visits …"



Salinger's reference to one of Joyce's stories leads the reader to intense imagination, who was the "second figure in that subway car", was it someone who Joyce's protagonist dreamed a life with, or created an imaginary world but one which never bridged into reality and instead stayed in the world of one's dreams? Or instead was this "second figure" someone who perhaps developed a romantic, clandestine affair with the protagonist in her story? This secret would only be shared between J.D., and Joyce, these two "sole survivors", their shared ciphered code.



But Salinger does suggest a longing for his past life with her noting "I forbear to leave a coded familiar sign at the bottom of the notepaper for fear's sake, but it is there … worse still the coded sign alone is too small a part of the need now. The thing has grown, increased beyond subway-tale proportions even."



His final paragraph in closing to her in which he resonates his feelings of loss and still day dreams … .

"Years ago, I half-started to send you two drawings in ink I did, one of you, and, narcissistically, one of me, as we looked to each other, in turn outside your apartment building in White Plains. How many times I've remembered those particular appearances"



Salinger's Catcher In The Rye years, when he spent his time with Joyce, were complex 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 this 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 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.”

An incredibly important letter from 1969 pulling together a confluence of relevant points. On Salinger's many penned pages, written nearly 18 years after Catcher In The Rye was published, and 17 years after Salinger ran to seclusion in New Hampshire to escape the public, he wrote to his past soul mate, using carefully measure words. Pining to Joyce in riddles, writing to her in codes, references and allusions, relating to her with the use of her own stories, and at times being quite forthright "worse still the coded sign alone is too small a part of the need now", Salinger is reaching out to Joyce to rekindle their flame.



Perhaps the longest and most personal J.D. Salinger ALS to have ever been offered with an incredibly important association! Salinger may now have been "old" but to his point he was merely "a graying child".



WE PROVIDE IN-HOUSE SHIPPING WORLDWIDE.