Salinger fans everywhere, rejoice: J.D.’s son Matt has confirmed in a new interview with the Guardian that all of — yes, you read that correctly, ALL OF — Salinger’s unpublished writing will be published at some point, likely over the next decade.
As of now, the younger Salinger is busily sifting through the material that his father left behind. “This was somebody who was writing for 50 years without publishing, so that’s a lot of material,” Matt said. He wants people to know that “we’re going as fast as we freaking can,” and he feels the “pressure” to get the material out there, more so than his father did.
The literary world loves a good posthumous publication story, especially one involving a notorious recluse. Salinger’s last published story, “Hapworth 16, 1924,” was printed in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965. In the 45 years between that publication and his death in 2010, Salinger became well-known for his private nature. Yet he continued to write, leaving behind safes full of unpublished material that now resides in a “high-security storage facility.”
It’s worth noting that these works are not the “five new Salinger books” the makers of a 2013 Salinger documentary claimed were on the way by 2020. The documentary did not formally involve Salinger’s family, and back then Matt called the rumors “total trash.”
According to his interview with the Guardian, the forthcoming works cover “everything that the discerning reader would care about.” Although Matt did not give specific details about the stories, he did indicate that we would be hearing again from Salinger’s famous Glass family.
Matt also noted that his father wanted him to publish the material, but knew it would take a long time. “When it’s ready, we’re going to share it.” But we do have to at least ask the question: Is this really what Daddy wanted?
