December 2019 Auction Ends Thursday, December 12th, 5pm Pacific
This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 12/12/2019
Large lot of J.D. Salinger correspondence, comprising a revealing typed letter signed ''Jerry'' that includes an additional autograph note signed, and also a letter signed ''John Ringling North'' in type, both accompanied by their original mailing envelopes. Lot also includes a page of fiction, likely written by the letters' recipient, Rose-Ellen Currie, an author whom Salinger admired. First letter, dated 8 March (1954) from Windsor, Vermont, shows Salinger in the middle of writing a ''large-size book'', possibly an early incarnation of either ''Franny'' or ''Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters'', both published in 1955. Letter reads in part, ''All documents received and very much enjoyed, so take back your flatulent apologies about your general awfulness, etc. Mama don't allow no masochism here...I almost never write letters when I'm working, perverse and tiny man that I am, and that I'd hoped you knew all about. Though I don't see how you could have.
I'll help you bury your rejection slip, though. There - it's buried! as we say in Zen...I am up to my flat, slug-white, writer's ass in a large-size book, which is giving me the usual amount of trouble, and so I get to the Plaza almost never. I'm just working and working, and a lot of it is beginning to shape up, and a lot isn't. Have given up all secular joys till the end is in sight. No more comic books...I did goof off one weekend, though, and slipped up to Montreal with a buddy, but I paid through the nose for it, professionally speaking, and from that day to this, I ain't so much as looked at no ladies. So it goes. I have high enough hopes for the book, off and on.
Not much else, except that I have a sprained arm from a fall on the ice, which is no great inconvenience, but it does keep me away from my ceramics...I'm thing of you and your father's trousers, and I hope to take you drinking before the frost is on the pumpkin. Bounteously, [signed] Jerry''.
Salinger then adds an autograph note, ''Excuse all the paragraphs. I'm really up to my ears in work confusion. With affection, J.'' Single page letter measures 8.5'' x 11'', accompanied by mailing envelope postmarked 10 March 1954. Folds, else near fine.
Second letter, dated 18 July 1957, is addressed, ''Dear Rose Ellen girl'', with Salinger writing, ''The medal was very handsome. I keep it in the watch pocket of my rompers. / We're all blooming, but outside of that, young lady, I don't have a thing to say to you till you get that juicy family novel written. / John Ringling North''. Letter measures 8.5'' x 11'', with original mailing envelope. Folds, else near fine condition. Lot is completed by a page of fiction, likely by Currie, in whose clever prose one can see Salinger's influence.
J.D. Salinger Letter Signed Twice, With Autograph Note -- ''...I am up to my flat, slug-white writer's ass in a large-size book...'' -- And With Letter Signed ''John Ringling North'' in Type
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