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Authors: Paul Alexander

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THEFT, RUMOR, AND INNUENDO

 

“Lee Eisenberg, a young man . . . where it came from”
: This quote comes from my interview with Gordon Lish.

 

It was a cold and rainy fall evening . . . hanging the telephone up
: This section about the John Greenberg episode is
based on the November 3, 1974
New York Times
article “J. D. Salinger Speaks About His Silence” by Lacey Fosburgh as well as my interview with Andreas Brown.

 

“Through the years” . . . “your coming here”
: This episode is based on the November 18, 1974
Newsweek
article by
Bill Roeder.

 

Then, in that same year, 1975 . . . “let us observe the consequences”
:
Here at the New Yorker
by Brendan Gill, Random House,
1975.

 

On April 22, 1976 . . . what I’ve done in this case”
: This section is based on the two John Calvin Batchelor articles that appeared in
the
Soho Weekly News
in April 1976 and April 1977 as well as my interviews with Batchelor.

 

“In 1976, at Exeter . . . become Holden Caulfield”
: This quote comes from my interview with Becky Lish.

 

 

STALKING SALINGER

 

The reporter was Michael Clarkson . . . Salinger returned to his television
: These two episodes are based on the
Niagara Falls Review
article “Two Hard-won Encounters with J. D. Salinger” by Michael Clarkson.

 

In the narrative of Salinger’s life . . . His autograph, that is
: This episode is based on Betty Eppes’s article “What I Did
Last Summer,” including a brief introduction written by the editors, which appeared in
The Paris Review
in the summer of 1981, as well as my interview with George Plimpton.

 

“Well, in her letter . . . he’s a human being”
: This quote comes from my interview with George
Plimpton.

 

In December that same year, 1980 . . . from Salinger’s book
: This description of John Lennon’s murder is based on contemporaneous
press accounts as well as
Lennon: The Definitive Biography
by Ray Coleman, McGraw Hill, 1985.

 

On March 30, 1981 . . .
The Catcher in the Rye: Nancy Reagan
: The Unauthorized Biography
by Kitty Kelley, Simon and Schuster, 1991.

 

His sense of . . . another or die
: “Case History of All of Us,” by Ernest Jones,
The Nation,
January 1991.

 

In 1981 . . . “there was a romance”
: The information in these two paragraphs, including the direct quotes, comes from my interview
with Elaine Joyce. A version of these paragraphs was included in my
New York
magazine article “J. D. Salinger’s Women.” The incident at the dinner theater in Florida
was also mentioned in
The Washington Post
on May 15, 1982.

 

 

TRIALS AND TRIBULATIONS

 

In 1982, another wave . . . end of the discussion
: This passage is based on a conversation between Lawrence Grobel and Truman Capote that was
included in
Conversations with Capote
by Lawrence Grobel (New American Library, 1985) as well as my interview with Grobel.

 

“Nonsense! . . . become enigmas”
: This quote comes from my interview with Roger Angell.

 

In January 1985, for example . . . not under any conditions
: This information comes from a letter dated January 20, 1985
written by Salinger to William Faison which was supplied to me by Gloria Murray.

 

Determined to stop the release . . . “heretofore unpublished letters”
: This paragraph is based on “The Salinger File” by
Phoebe Hoban; court papers from
J. D. Salinger versus Random House and Ian Hamilton;
and my interviews with Robert Callagy, Ian Hamilton, and Phoebe Hoban.

 

It was two o’clock in the afternoon . . . publishing in the mid-1960s
: This passage about Salinger and the general topics covered in his
deposition is based on an undisclosed source as well as my interview with Robert Callagy.

 

“Mr. Salinger . . . I just go on from there”
: This excerpt from Salinger’s deposition is reproduced from the June 15, 1987
New York
magazine which contained Phoebe Hoban’s “The Salinger File.” The excerpt was published as a sidebar to Hoban’s article.

 

In the course of the deposition . . . without his permission
: These two paragraphs come from an undisclosed source.

 

On November 5 . . . once and for all
: This passage comes from material in
In Search of J. D. Salinger
by Ian Hamilton.

 

“The whole thing was awful . . . nastier and nastier”
: This quote comes from my interview with Ian Hamilton.

 

“You know that terrible ordeal . . . such a sweet man”
: This quote comes from my interview with Andreas Brown.

 

“Here was a man . . . I thought was very sad”
: This quote comes from my interview with Robert Callagy.

 

In 1987, an incident involving Salinger . . . or so the story went
: The episode was reported by
Spy
magazine whose story was then covered
in
People
magazine on December 28, 1987.

 

“Salinger fell in love with her . . . escorted off”
: These quotes come from my interview with Ian Hamilton.

 

When it did . . . no lawsuit was ever filed
: This information comes from my interview with Catherine Oxenberg’s agent, Harry Gold.

 

One day in April 1988 . . . punch the camera
: A copy of this cover was supplied to me by Richard Johnson.

 

They left . . . Salinger drove away: This paragraph is based on an account included in the article “Stalking J. D. Salinger
: A Mean
Feat” by Thomas Collins, which appeared in
Newsday
on May 1, 1988, as well as my interview with Paul Adao.

 

On the evening of July 18, 1989 . . . the novel in his possession
: This passage is based on a
San Diego Union—Tribune
article that
ran on September 25, 1991, a UPI story called “Psychiatrist: Bardo Interested in Other Stalkers” that ran on October 9, 1991, and a UPI story called “Schaeffer Remembered as
Amazing Young Lady’” that ran on July 23, 1991.

 

For her part, after her
divorce
. . . the treatment of children
: This information was supplied to me by the Alumni Office of Radcliffe
College.

 

“She was very, very pretty . . . discussed Salinger”
: This quote comes from my interview with George
Plimpton.

 

“One night, we all . . . with whom I was sitting”
:
Ibid.

 

After attending Andover . . .
The Sum of Us
:
The information about Matthew Salinger comes from “Father’s Shadow Can’t
Contain Matt Salinger” by Leslie Aldridge Westoff, which ran in
The Chicago Tribune
on July 28, 1988; “Matt Salinger, Into the Spotlight” by David Remnick, which
appeared in
The Washington Post;
and a 1985 article by Patricia O’Haire called “The Son Rises . . . In Public” that ran in the
New York Daily News.

 

“I see red . . . a public life”
: Salinger gave this quote to Remnick for his
Washington Post
article.

 

“You have to be careful . . . ‘Don’t ever come back again’”
: This quote comes from my interview with Ethel
Nelson.

 

“In the end . . . ‘Hapworth’ as a book”
: This quote comes from my interview with Jonathan Schwartz,

 

Perhaps the most curious . . . semi-divine act
: “The Haunted Life of J. D. Salinger” by Ron Rosenbaum,
Esquire.

 

When asked . . . “the bread lines of the thirties”
: This quote comes from my interview with Roger Lathbury.

 

 

GHOSTS IN THE SHADOWS

 

The material in this chapter, including all quotes, are taken from my
New York
article “J. D. Salinger’s Women.”
Much
of the chapter is confirmed by incidents in
At Home in the World
by Joyce Maynard.

 

“I would not assign . . . unduly assailed”
: This quote comes from my interview with Gordon Lish.

 

 

CODA

 

“He began to write . . . that’s different, isn’t it?”
: This quote comes from my interview with Russell Hoban.

 

On the issue of . . . agents and friends”
: These quotes come from my interview with George Plimpton.

Index

“A Boy in France,”
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

A Brighter Day,
ref1

“A Girl I Knew,”
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5

Adao, Paul,
ref1

Addams, Charles,
ref1

Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The,
ref1

Alfonso XIII,
ref1

Andrews, Dana,
ref1

Angell, Roger,
ref1

As the World Turns,
ref1

Atlantic Monthly,
ref1

Austen, Jane,
ref1

 

Baker, Milton S.,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5
,
ref6

Baldwin, Jerome Faith,
ref1

Bardo, Robert John,
ref1

Barth, Alan,
ref1

Barthleme, Donald,
ref1

Batchelor, John Calvin,
ref1

Baton Rouge Advocate,
ref1

Beauty and the Beast,
ref1

Behrman, S. N.,
ref1

Bell Jar, The,
ref1
,
ref2

Bellows, Jim,
ref1

Berg, A. Scott,
ref1

Best American Short Stories of 1949,
ref1

“Bitsy,”
ref1
,
ref2

Blake, William,
ref1

Blaney, Shirlie,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Bloom, Harold,
ref1

“Blue Melody,”
ref1

Book-of-the-Month Club News,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

“Both Parties Concerned,”
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Boulton, Agnes,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

“Boy Standing in Tennessee, A,”
ref1

Bradford, Ned,
ref1

Bradley, Omar,
ref1

Brady, James,
ref1

Breit, Harvey,
ref1

Brontë, Emily,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Brown, Andreas,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Brown, Ned,
ref1

Bullock, Turner,
ref1

Bunyan, John,
ref1

Burger, Nash K.,
ref1

Burnett, Hallie,
ref1

Burnett, Whit,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5
,
ref6
,
ref7
,
ref8
,
ref9
,
ref10
,
ref11
,
ref12
,
ref13
,
ref14
,
ref15
,
ref16
,
ref17
,
ref18
,
ref19
,
ref20
,
ref21
,
ref22
,
ref23
,
ref24
,
ref25
,
ref26

Burns, Robert,
ref1

 

Callagy, Robert,
ref1

Campbell, Frank,
ref1

Capote, Truman,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4

Carroll, Lewis,
ref1

Casablanca,
ref1

Catcher in the Rye, The,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5
,
ref6
,
ref7
,
ref8
,
ref9
,
ref10
,
ref11
,
ref12
,
ref13
,
ref14
,
ref15
,
ref16
,
ref17
,
ref18
,
ref19
,
ref20
,
ref21
,
ref22
,
ref23
,
ref24
,
ref25
,
ref26
,
ref27
,
ref28
,
ref29
,
ref30
,
ref31
,
ref32
,
ref33
,
ref34
,
ref35
,
ref36
,
ref37
,
ref38

Caldwell, Taylor,
ref1

Chambrun, Jacques,
ref1

Chaplin, Charlie,
ref1
,
ref2

Chapman, Mark David,
ref1

Charques, R. D.,
ref1

Cheever, John,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Chekhov, Anton,
ref1

“Children’s Echelon, The,”
ref1

Christian Science Monitor,
ref1

Churchill, Winston,
ref1

Claremont Daily Eagle,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Clarkson, Michael,
ref1
,
ref2

Coleridge, Samuel Taylor,
ref1

College English,
ref1

Collier’s,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5
,
ref6
,
ref7
,
ref8
,
ref9

Complete Uncollected Stories of J. D. Salinger, The,
ref1

Congdon, Don,
ref1

Connelly, Steve,
ref1

Conrad, Joseph,
ref1

Cooper, Gary,
ref1

Cosmopolitan,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Crack-Up, The,
ref1

Cranach, Lucas,
ref1

Crossed Sabres,
ref1

Crowther, Bosley
ref1

Crying of Lot 49, The,
ref1

Culligan, Glendy,
ref1

 

Dancing in the End Zone,
ref1

“Daughter of the Late Great Man, The,”
ref1
,
ref2

“De Daumier-Smith’s Blue Period,”
ref1
,
ref2

De Niro, Robert,
ref1

Dean, James,
ref1

Deitzler, Richard,
ref1
,
ref2

Delahanty, Timothy,
ref1

DeLillo, Don,
ref1
,
ref2

DeVries, Peter,
ref1

Dickins, Charles,
ref1

Didion, Joan,
ref1
,
ref2

Dodge, Carlotta Saint-Gaudens,
ref1
,
ref2

Dostoyevsky, Fyodor,
ref1

Douglas, Jean Stewart,
ref1

Douglas, Robert Langton,
ref1

“Down at the Dinghy,”
ref1
,
ref2

Dynasty,
ref1

 

Edward VIII,
ref1

Eisenberg, Lee,
ref1

Eisenhower, Dwight,
ref1

“Elaine,”
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5

Elfin, Mel,
ref1

Eliot, John,
ref1

Ellis, Bret Easton,
ref1
,
ref2

“Entropy,”
ref1

Eppes, Betty,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Epstein, Julius,
ref1

Epstein, Leslie,
ref1

Epstein, Philip,
ref1

Erskine, Albert,
ref1

Esquire,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5
,
ref6
,
ref7
,
ref8

 

Fadiman, Clifton,
ref1

Faison, William,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Faulkner, William,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4

Ferrell, Dorothy,
ref1

Ferrell, James T.,
ref1

Fiction Writer’s Handbook, A,
ref1

Field of Dreams,
ref1
,
ref2

55 Stories,
ref1

Fitzgerald, F. Scott,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5
,
ref6
,
ref7

Flaubert, Gustave,
ref1
,
ref2

Foley, Martha,
ref1

For Esmé—With Love and Squalor,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

“For Esmé—With Love and Squalor,”
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5
,
ref6
,
ref7

“For Rupert—With No Regrets,”
ref1

Fosburgh, Lacey,
ref1
,
ref2

Foster, Jodie,
ref1
,
ref2

Franco, Francisco,
ref1

Frankland, Arthur J.,
ref1

Frankland, Elizabeth K.,
ref1

Franny and Zooey,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5
,
ref6
,
ref7
,
ref8
,
ref9
,
ref10

“Franny,”
ref1
,
ref2

French, Warren,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

 

Garbo, Greta,
ref1

Gaudrault, Gerard,
ref1

Gibbs, Woolcott,
ref1

Gill, Brendan,
ref1

Giroux, Robert,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Give Me the World,
ref1

Glassmoyer, Frances,
ref1

“Go See Eddie,”
ref1

Goldwyn, Samuel,
ref1
,
ref2

Gonder, Richard,
ref1

Good Housekeeping,
ref1
,
ref2

Goodman, Ann L.,
ref1

Gravity’s Rainbow,
ref1

Great Gatsby, The,
ref1
,
ref2

“Greenberg, John,”
ref1

Grobel, Lawrence,
ref1

Guardian,
ref1

Guiding Your Child to a More Creative Life,
ref1

 

Hadley, Leila,
ref1

Hamilton, Hamish,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5
,
ref6
,
ref7
,
ref8
,
ref9
,
ref10
,
ref11
,
ref12

Hamilton, Ian,
ref1
,
ref2

Hand, Learned,
ref1

“Hang of It, The,”
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Hapworth 16, 1924,
ref1

“Hapworth 16, 1924,”
ref1
,
ref2

Harper’s,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4

Harper’s Bazaar,
ref1

Hart, Bret,
ref1

Hartt, J. N.,
ref1

Havemann, Ernest,
ref1

Hayward, Susan,
ref1

Head, Edith,
ref1

“Heart of the Broken Story, The,”
ref1

Heath, Samuel,
ref1

Heinemann, William,
ref1
,
ref2

Heiserman, Arthur,
ref1

Heller, Joseph,
ref1

Hellman, Lillian,
ref1

Hemingway, Ernest,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5
,
ref6
,
ref7
,
ref8

Henry, Q.,
ref1
,
ref2

Here at the New Yorker,
ref1

Heyen, Anabel,
ref1

Highet, Gilbert,
ref1

Hill, Franklin,
ref1

Hinckley, John,
ref1
,
ref2

Hitler, Adolf,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Hoban, Esmé,
ref1

Hoban, Phoebe,
ref1

Hoban, Russell,
ref1
,
ref2

Hoffman, Harry,
ref1

Holiday, Billie,
ref1

Honan, William H.,
ref1

Hoover, J. Edgar,
ref1

Hotchner, A. E.,
ref1
,
ref2

Howe, Irving,
ref1

Hughes, Barnard,
ref1

 

“I’m Crazy,”
ref1
,
ref2

In Search of J. D. Salinger,
ref1

“Inverted Forest, The,”
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Iowa English,
ref1

 

J. D. Salinger: A Writing Life,
ref1

“J. D. Salinger: Some Crazy Cliff,”
ref1

Jack the Giant Killer,
ref1

Jackson, Shirley,
ref1

James, Henry,
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3

Johnson, Burnace Fitch,
ref1

Jones, Ernest,
ref1
,
ref2

Jones, James Earl,
ref1

Journey’s End,
ref1
,
ref2

Joyce, Elaine,
ref1
,
ref2

Joyce, James,
ref1

“Just Before the War with the Eskimos,”
ref1
,
ref2
,
ref3
,
ref4
,
ref5

 

Kafka, Franz,
ref1
,
ref2

Kakutani, Michiko,
ref1

Kaysen, Susanna,
ref1

Keats, John,
ref1

Kennedy, John F.,
ref1

Kennedy Jr., John F.,
ref1

Kennedy’s Children,
ref1

Kermode, Frank,
ref1

Kidman, Nicole,
ref1

Kierkegaard, Soren,
ref1

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