J. D. Salinger: The Last Interview

Holden Caulfield might have one of the most recognizable voices in American literature, but, as readers, we’ve heard precious little from his legendary creator, J. D. Salinger.

J. D. Salinger: The Last Interview collects the rare, revealing, and essential public records of the elusive giant—from his very first interview with Book of the Month Club magazine, to his last (a deposition in his suit against his biographer Ian Hamilton), and the little-known conversations in between. It offers insights into Salinger’s early days as a writer, (when he’d had only one story published), his attempts to kill a book of pirated stories, and the late “comeback” that he may or may not have even wanted.

Amusing, enlightening, and expertly selected, these documents reveal a man fiercely resistant to the spotlight, but powerless to escape its glare.

Edited and with an introduction by Pulitzer Prize-winning journailst David Streitfeld.

Series Overview: A series of pocket-sized interview collections, featuring conversations with some of the iconic writers and thinkers of our time.

About the Author

Jerome David Salinger, born New York City, Jan. 1, 1919, established his reputation on the basis of a single novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1951), whose principal character, Holden Caulfield, epitomized the growing pains of a generation of high school and college students. The public attention that followed the success of the book led Salinger to move from New York to the remote hills of Cornish, N.H. Before that he had published only a few short stories; one of them, A Perfect Day for Bananafish, which appeared in The New Yorker in 1949, introduced readers to Seymour Glass, a character who subsequently figured in Franny and Zooey (1961) and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenter and Seymour: An Introduction (1963), Salinger's only other published books. Of his 35 published short stories, those which Salinger wishes to preserve are collected in Nine Stories (1953).