Salinger, J. D.

Group of 9 letters, comprising 5 autograph letters signed ("Jerry" and "Jerry Salinger") and 4 typed letters signed ("Jerry"), 15 pages (various sizes), Westport CT, New York, and Cornish NH, 13 May 1950—7 June 1976, to Joyce Miller; horizontal and vertical folds. Autograph and typed envelopes.

Condition as described in catalogue entry.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

"An egoist I remain and a graying child." J. D. Salinger's letters to Joyce Miller.

Joyce Miller was on the staff of The New Yorker in the late 1940's and early 1950's, when J. D. Salinger was publishing stories in the magazine and working on his novel, The Catcher in the Rye. In the spring of 1950, when Salinger was living in Westport, Connecticut, and Miller in White Plains, the two developed a close relationship that never quite blossomed into romance. Miller was an aspiring writer and Salinger attempted to help her polish a short story, a situation he refers to in later correspondence. The two drifted apart, with Miller leaving the magazine and Salinger moving to New Hampshire. They kept in touch sporadically over the years; and in 1976, Salinger inscribed a copy of The Catcher in the Rye at Miller's request for her niece (see next lot).

Like Holden Caulfield, Salinger himself favored the Biltmore Hotel as a meeting place in Manhattan. In the letter of 13 May 1950, he writes, "I wondered Thursday whether you'd be free to bolt another drink with me, but decided I'd better plod back to Connecticut, where all my chores are. (The same strong sense of duty that, in the Army, shot me up through the ranks from Private to Private First Class in four short years). Next Friday, the 19th, an old friend of mine in N. Y. is throwing a May wine party in the late afternoon. Will you go with me? We could meet at, say, the Biltmore around 6:15, then later on have dinner and drive back to White Plains."

In another letter the same month, Salinger mentions having drinks with author Peter DeVries before going off to a boring dinner party in Weston: "…[F]rom 7:30 to 10:14, I discussed cars and cigarette brands and television programs with some advertising goon." The next day, he is happy to be back at work on The Catcher in the Rye: "Thank God the sun's shining today. I'll work with sun coming in the room, Friday, I'll see you and I can't think of anything better than that."

Salinger's letter of 30 May 1950 is concerned almost entirely with writing, his own and Miller's. "Sharing my brand-new silk typewriter ribbon with you. The supreme sacrifice. Some men covet Cadillacs, homes in the country, etc. With me it's typewriter ribbons." He goes on describe a diner in a Japanese restaurant with Peter DeVries and others: "A very nice dinner, but too much shop talk afterward. Writers, writers, writers. If only we could do our work and then shut up when we're finished. We talk so goddam much, and we're such hopeless megalomaniacs….We should all stay away from each other."

In the same letter, Salinger turns his attention to the short story Miller is working on: "Work on your story, like a good girl. Don't worry about character development and other textbook claptrap. Just keep the action going—like the little girl wiping off her hand—and the dialogue sounding real, and you won't have anything important to worry about. The tone of the story you described to me makes me think that you would enjoy Katherine Mansfield's stories. Particularly BLISS and THE GARDEN PARTY."

After a hiatus of nineteen years, the correspondence picks up again with a six-page letter written from the Drake Hotel in New York on 17 February 1969. Salinger describes himself as he is in 1969: "An egoist I remain, and a graying child." He closes with a postscript: "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."

In the spring of 1976, Miller asked Salinger to inscribe a copy of The Cather in the Rye. Salinger replied on 7 June: "Years and years ago, I more or less swore off writing my name in books with little vacuous phrases tacked on in front, like 'with all good wishes' or 'Yours till Niagara Falls,' etc., and it's such empty and awful buckaroo to inscribe strangers books anyway. But then I said, if this is a well-loved niece of yours, this young Onandaga (pretty funny name for a girl, though, I must say), and if you promise not to grown any more well-loved nieces, I'll accommodate you, Madam. Gladly."

A previously unknown archive of letters written by J. D. Salinger over a twenty-six year period.