Salinger, J.D. (1919 – 2010)

‘I can’t remember when I last had a picture taken,’ muses Salinger, as he disappears even further from public life 

A rare 5″ X 4.5″ portion of an autograph letter (top portion torn away) signed by J.D. Salinger, Cornish, NH, December 25th 1963 in which he encloses a copy of his new book in lieu of his photograph.

The author writes to an unknown correspondent on Christmas Day, 1963, stating that ‘I can’t remember when I last had a picture taken,’ and going on, ‘but here is an edition of a book you may not have. I send it with all good wishes. Please get well and write me a long letter. With friendly feelings, affection, J.D. Salinger,’ and adding the place and date beneath his signature. In very condition.

The book referred to (no longer present) is likely to be Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. This compilation of two novellas proved to be Salinger’s last print publication, other than Hapworth 16, 1924, which was published by the New Yorker in 1965.

In 1963, Salinger was living in isolation in his home in Cornish, New Hampshire. He had been increasingly withdrawn from public life ever since the the publication of Catcher in the Rye in 1951, largely avoiding interviews, public appearances, and socializing with anyone outside his immediate family. Salinger’s reluctance to be photographed is well-known, and only a few images of him are known to exist, the majority taken earlier in his life before he withdrew from the public eye.  In 1959, as publisher Little, Brown & Company was preparing a hardcover edition pairing two of his short stories, Salinger demanded that his photograph be removed from its dust jacket and that the cover include only his name and the stories’ titles.