Letters By J. D. Salinger

New York, NY, February 23, 2010—As a tribute to J. D. Salinger (1919-2010), who died January 27, The Morgan Library & Museum will hold a pair of exhibitions, the first beginning March 16, of ten letters by the author.

Written to Michael Mitchell, who was commissioned by Salinger to create the dust jacket for The Catcher in the Rye, the letters cover a forty-year period, and constitute an extraordinarily rare and revealing correspondence. They richly document a period of Salinger's life that has remained obscure and provide hitherto unknown details about the daily habits and thought of this legendary author.

The first exhibition of four letters will run through April 11. The second exhibition of six letters will open on April 13 and run through May 9. Both will be shown in the Morgan's historic McKim Building.

The letters were acquired in 1998 as part of the Morgan's Carter Burden Collection of American Literature. During Salinger's lifetime the Morgan restricted access to the letters in deference to the author's widely known desire for privacy. That restriction has now been lifted and the letters are to be exhibited for the first time and will be available to scholars.

They reveal many sides of Salinger's personality. Writing about marriage, parenthood, travel, work, and his self-imposed sequester from friends and society, he is at turns self-deprecating, admiring, affectionate, playful, and acerbically funny. Some letters demonstrate his suspicion of publishers and impatience and anger about the intrusion of admirers and would-be biographers into his privacy.

He writes eloquently and poignantly about the challenges to creativity that come with middle age, and the self-doubt attendant upon his writing. But he confirms what many of his devoted readers had long hoped: Salinger continued to adhere to a strict writing discipline and, by the mid-1960s, had completed at least two novels and continued to work on others.

THE MORGAN LIBRARY & MUSEUM
A complex of buildings in the heart of New York City, The Morgan Library & Museum began as the private library of financier Pierpont Morgan, one of the preeminent collectors and cultural benefactors in the United States. Today it is a museum, independent research library, musical venue, architectural landmark, and historic site. More than a century after its founding, the Morgan maintains a unique position in the cultural life of New York City and is considered one of its greatest treasures. With the 2006 reopening of its newly renovated campus, designed by renowned architect Renzo Piano, the Morgan reaffirmed its role as an important repository for the history, art, and literature of Western civilization from 4000 B.C. to the twenty-first century.

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