What I heard at J.D. Salinger’s doorstep
01 April 2009
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Tom Leonard makes a pilgrimage to Cornish, New Hampshire, where the 90-year-old author of The Catcher in the Rye leads a reclusive existence with his third wife
Locals concur that Salinger is seen out far more infrequently than in the past. Apart from the supermarket, he and his wife occasionally go to a local café in Windsor, the nearest town, for coffee and a sandwich (‘he likes the spinach and mushroom wraps’, said the manager), and a restaurant there. As for socialising, the only events he has attended regularly for years are the monthly turkey dinners at the little Universalist Unitarian church ten miles away in the town of Hartland.
Salinger has experimented with many religions over the years, including Zen Buddhism. Unitarianism, which welcomes all religions, seems an obvious home for him. ‘Nobody is supposed to acknowledge that he’s there. You just treat him like he’s just another normal person,’ said Kay Cavendish, a churchgoer who attends the dinners.
The rule is that if you have to talk to him, make sure you never acknowledge that he is famous, said Robert Dean, who runs a smart Windsor B&B. ‘If you see him, you know not to talk to him unless he talks to you. He’s not one for chitchat,’ he said.
While the locals stress that JD is respected rather than liked, nobody has a bad word to say for his wife. Colleen O’Neill, 40 years Salinger’s junior, is his third wife and was one of the many young women with whom he has corresponded over the years.
As if making up for her husband, she is said to be friendly and a pillar of the community, a painter who runs a quilt-making group, set up a local online noticeboard and runs a food stand at the annual charity fun run.
The big question — what has he been doing all these years, and specifically, has he been writing? — remains unanswered in Cornish. ‘The truth is nobody really knows him apart from his wife,’ said Mr Dean.
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Tariq
April 2nd, 2009 8:02pm Report this commentThis article is so pointless that I have to ask: April Fool?
Zack
April 3rd, 2009 3:18am Report this comment"The man who stopped talking to the world more than 50 years ago doesn’t intend to start now."
No shit, Sherlock.
Vijay
April 3rd, 2009 9:59am Report this commentWhat a waste! I really want to know what made you do the trip when everybody else, the world over, has given up in the last 50 years?!
Eliot C.
April 3rd, 2009 2:36pm Report this commentOnly a truly pathetic individual would stoop this low. So he doesn't want to live in our media culture and he's a 'recluse'; as I said, pathetic sums this up.
Alide
April 3rd, 2009 11:28pm Report this commentCheck your background. There was a Canadian journalist by the name of Michael Clarkson, who was nominated though not chosen for a Pulitzer Prize for getting an interview with Salinger , see http://www.lancetteer.com/Archives_Feature_Michael_Clarkson.htm or http://www.lancetteer.com/Archives_Feature_Michael_Clarkson.htm
beezz
April 5th, 2009 12:19pm Report this commentSuggest you take a leaf out of Salinger's book Tom and not publish anything for the next 40 years. Must try harder - or shut the f*** up.
teledu
April 5th, 2009 3:34pm Report this commentDid you get paid for this?
Margot Darby
April 5th, 2009 8:41pm Report this commentNice work. Salinger always struck me as a complete phony, a derivative writer animated by the fads of his youth and a thin velleity to have a kind of Thomas Merton spirituality, provided it wasn't too much trouble. (Obviously it was.) I see why this hoaxster hides out, but he has not earned the right not to answer questions.
Henry Wood
April 5th, 2009 9:24pm Report this commentWTF was that all about? I tell you what, Tom, you come to my house and I'll tell ya to FO too, just like I tell everybody else. Some of us don't like company but can get by with comments to crap blogs like yours.
Sanjeev
April 6th, 2009 2:04am Report this commentYou are a nitwit, Tom Leonard. 50+ years later, don't you get it that the man does not want to talk to anyone. Why go hound him at his doorstep like this! Just so people can read about your stupid exploit. (Maybe in some way, you are elated to see this response. Isn't this what you wanted when you went to NH?)
James R
April 6th, 2009 6:49am Report this commentI'm not defending Salinger's work, but then neither is he. He did not make himself a 'cult hero'. And, yes, he does have the right not to answer questions. He was born with it.
Ben
April 8th, 2009 2:48pm Report this commentharrassing a 90 yr old man? great reporting!
David Short
July 25th, 2009 5:03am Report this commentIt's no surprise tha JDS wrote nothing much more after The Catcher in the Rye.
How embarrassing it must have been to have written a book that so many of us read as adolescents and thought it was so wonderful.
But has anyone, once in full adulthood, re-read it and thought it was anything but rich kid rubbish?
Jon Hainsworth
March 6th, 2011 7:08pm Report this commentAs regards what Salinger had been writing during the years of his seclusion, this article may add some further insight:
http://www.thenewpennypress.com/Archives/Entries/2010/7/12_What_were_you_doing_between_the_years_1965_and_1971Searching_for_Giles_Weaver.html
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