J.D. Salinger’s Son Reveals That Previously Unpublished Works By His Father Will Be Released

J.D. Salinger is an American writer who was most well known for his novel, The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger passed away in 2010, and it has now been revealed by his son, Matt Salinger, that there are plenty of unpublished works from his late father.

According to an interview Matt gave to the Guardian, the plan is to release all of J.D. Salinger’s unpublished works. However, it is believed that this could take some time to complete the process.

“This was somebody who was writing for 50 years without publishing, so that’s a lot of material,” Matt Salinger said.

While literary fans may be disappointed at the anticipated long release schedule for Salinger’s unpublished works, his son reveals that he and his father’s widow, Colleen O’Neill, are “going as fast as we freaking can.”

As the Associated Press points out, J.D. Salinger had not published anything since the mid-1960s. So, potentially, there could be a large volume of unpublished works.

Previously, in 2013, rumors had circulated that five works would be published posthumously by J.D. Salinger. Among the books believed to be published at the time was “one short story featuring Holden Caulfield and one based on Salinger’s brief marriage to Sylvia, a Nazi collaborator.” However, Matt had quashed these rumors at the time.

JD Salinger's unseen writings to be published, family confirms https://t.co/Z8vDjVemNQ

— Guardian Books (@GuardianBooks) February 1, 2019

Matt has not yet revealed details of the upcoming works. However, the Guardian believes that more stories featuring the Glass family could be among the new works.

Matt Salinger reveals that he feels an immense pressure to get the works published.

“I feel the pressure to get this done, more than he did,” he said.

Matt also added that it “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.”

While Salinger only published three complete books and two novellas (published in one edition) in his time, he did release a large volume of short stories. Salinger’s final work, which was published in his lifetime, was a story called Hapworth 16, 1924. This appeared in the New Yorker in 1965.

Little, Brown, and Company, Salinger’s longtime publisher, were asked for a comment by the Associated Press, but have not yet commented on the situation.

The year 2019 marks the centennial of J.D. Salinger’s birth, and an exhibition is planned for later in the year at the New York Public Library.