A massive collection of never-before-seen writings penned by author JD Salinger is going to be “shared” with the public “at some point” in the future, his son says.
“All of what he wrote will at some point be shared,” explained Matt Salinger in an interview with The Guardian.
“This was somebody who was writing for 50 years without publishing, so that’s a lot of material.”
The late author’s family has reportedly never confirmed the existence of his unseen writings. A famed recluse — best known for his 1951 book, “Catcher in the Rye” — Salinger chose to keep most of his content out of the public eye, his son said.
“He just decided that the best thing for his writing was not to have a lot of interactions with people, literary types in particular,” Matt told the Guardian.
“He didn’t want to be playing in those poker games, he wanted to, as he would encourage every would-be writer to do, you know, stew in your own juices.”
Matt said his dad “teemed with ideas and thoughts,” but declined to say what the new works were about.
“He’d be driving the car and he’d pull over to write something and laugh to himself — sometimes he’d read it to me, sometimes he wouldn’t — and next to every chair he had a notebook,” Matt recalled, noting how the writings have “no linear evolution” whatsoever.
“It becomes clear that he was after different game,” he said.
“[The writings] 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.”
According to the Guardian, Salinger’s son and widow, Colleen O’Neill, have been holding onto the material since the novelist died in 2010.
“When my father said that everything he has to say is in his fiction, believe it — it’s there,” Matt explained.
“I think when more of his writing is made accessible, he covers everything that the discerning reader would care about.”
It may be a little while, though, before anyone gets a chance to actually see it.
“He wanted me to pull it together, and because of the scope of the job, he knew it would take a long time,” Matt said.
“So there’s not a reluctance or a protectiveness. When it’s ready, we’re going to share it.”
Matt added, “I feel the pressure to get this done, more than he did.”