It seems as though the rumours are true; Matt Salinger, J.D. Salinger’s son, has confirmed that the late writer did, in fact, continue to write for decades after he stopped publishing books.
Those previously unpublished works are now being prepared for release in the coming years, Matt saying that he and Salinger’s widow Colleen are going “as fast as they freaking can” to get the books out.
The son of the late author J.D. Salinger has confirmed longstanding rumours that his father continued to write long after his last works were published, and that those novels are being prepared for release.
Matt Salinger, who helps oversee his father’s literary estate, has confirmed that while there is new work coming, it may be a few years away. He did not cite any specific titles or plots but did say that the Glass family, who featured in his novel Franny and Zooey, will be making another appearance.
“He wanted me to pull it together, and because of the scope of the job, he knew it would take a long time.”
“I feel the pressure to get this done, more than he did,” Matt said in a statement, adding that the unseen work “will definitely disappoint people that he wouldn’t care about, but for real readers, I think it will be tremendously well received by those people and they will be affected in the way every reader hopes to be affected when they open a book. Not changed, necessarily, but something rubs off that can lead to change.”
Over the course of his literary career, J.D. Salinger published only four books; The Catcher in The Rye, Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey and a volume with the two novellas Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. Salinger seldom spoke to the media and, after deciding to stop releasing new work, rejected any reissues and e-book editions of his published material.
Rumours regarding reading material by Salinger have been circulating for over half a century.
“This was somebody who was writing for 50 years without publishing, so that’s a lot of material. So there’s not a reluctance or a protectiveness: When it’s ready, we’re going to share it.”
Via Concord Monitor.
