494

J. D. Salinger

Currency:USD Category:Collectibles / Autographs Start Price:NA Estimated At:9,000.00 - 11,000.00 USD
J. D. Salinger

Bidding Over

The auction is over for this lot.
The auctioneer wasn't accepting online bids for this lot.

Contact the auctioneer for information on the auction results.

Search for other lots to bid on...
Auction Date:2018 Jan 10 @ 18:00 (UTC-05:00 : EST/CDT)
Location:236 Commercial St., Suite 100, Boston, Massachusetts, 02109, United States
ALS - Autograph Letter Signed
ANS - Autograph Note Signed
AQS - Autograph Quotation Signed
AMQS - Autograph Musical Quotation Signed
DS - Document Signed
FDC - First Day Cover
Inscribed - “Personalized”
ISP - Inscribed Signed Photograph
LS - Letter Signed
SP - Signed Photograph
TLS - Typed Letter Signed
ALS signed “Jerry,” one page, 8.5 x 11, postmarked May 21, 1950. Written from Westport, Connecticut, a letter to Joyce Miller, in full: "Just to say that I'm thinking of you and of Friday night. Yesterday was leaden. I stopped off at the De Vries' for a while (which was pleasant, really) to ask them to come up for a drink next Sunday. Then I got stuck at this god-awful dinner party in Weston. Dinner started at 10:15, and from 7:30 to 10:14, I discussed cars and cigarette brands and television programs with some advertising goon. I hope you fared better at the wedding. Thank god the sun's shining today. I'll work with sun coming in the room. Friday I'll see you, and I can't think of anything better than that." Salinger adds a few brief lines below his signature: "No answer required. I'm just thinking of you. Till Friday—J." In very good to fine condition, with scattered light creasing, and small holes at the intersections of the lightly toned folds. Accompanied by the original mailing envelope, addressed in Salinger's own hand.

The recipient, Joyce Miller, was a staffer at The New Yorker in the late 1940s and ’50s, when Salinger was publishing stories in the magazine. At the time of this letter, Salinger was residing in Westport, Connecticut, placing the finishing touches on his classic bildungsroman, The Catcher in the Rye, which was published the following year by Little, Brown and Company. A Salinger letter recently offered at RR Auction, dated a week earlier, May 13, 1950, affirms his reluctant return to Westport for the weekend, ‘where all my chores are,’ and an invitation for Miller, ‘Next Friday, the 19th, an old friend of mine in N.Y. is throwing a May Wine party in the late afternoon. Will you go with me?’ Miller, of course, did not join Salinger at the home of his New Yorker writer pal Peter De Vries, nor did she attend the “god-awful dinner party in Weston.” Salinger remains scarce across all formats, with this handwritten letter representing only the third we have ever offered.