J.D. Salinger Quote
My father wrote beautifully, Esmé interrupted. I’m saving a number of his letters for posterity.I said that sounded like a very good idea. I happened to be looking at her enormous-faced, chrono-graphic-looking wristwatch again. I asked if it had belonged to her father.She looked down at her wrist solemnly. Yes, it did, she said. He gave it to me just before Charles and I were evacuated. Self-consciously, she took her hand off the table, saying, Purely as a momento, of course. She guided the conversation in a different direction. I’d be extremely flattered if you’d write a story exclusively for me sometime. I’m an avid reader.I told her I certainly would, if I could. I said that I wasn’t terribly prolific.It doesn’t have to be terribly prolific! Just so that isn’t childish and silly. She reflected. I prefer stories about squalor.About what? I said, leaning forward.Squalor. I’m extremely interested in squalor.
My father wrote beautifully, Esmé interrupted. I’m saving a number of his letters for posterity.I said that sounded like a very good idea. I happened to be looking at her enormous-faced, chrono-graphic-looking wristwatch again. I asked if it had belonged to her father.She looked down at her wrist solemnly. Yes, it did, she said. He gave it to me just before Charles and I were evacuated. Self-consciously, she took her hand off the table, saying, Purely as a momento, of course. She guided the conversation in a different direction. I’d be extremely flattered if you’d write a story exclusively for me sometime. I’m an avid reader.I told her I certainly would, if I could. I said that I wasn’t terribly prolific.It doesn’t have to be terribly prolific! Just so that isn’t childish and silly. She reflected. I prefer stories about squalor.About what? I said, leaning forward.Squalor. I’m extremely interested in squalor.
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About J.D. Salinger
The Catcher in the Rye (1951) was an immediate popular success; Salinger's depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence was influential, especially among adolescent readers. The novel was widely read and controversial, and its success led to public attention and scrutiny. Salinger became reclusive, publishing less frequently. He followed Catcher with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953); Franny and Zooey (1961), a volume containing a novella and a short story; and a volume containing two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). Salinger's last published work, the novella Hapworth 16, 1924, appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.
Afterward, Salinger struggled with unwanted attention, including a legal battle in the 1980s with biographer Ian Hamilton and the release in the late 1990s of memoirs written by two people close to him: Joyce Maynard, an ex-lover; and his daughter, Margaret Salinger.