Looking ahead to Salinger

I was about to order Salinger's four books, but I remembered that most of his short stories and novellas were originally published in The New Yorker. Anyone who subscribes to the magazine can register to read any article that has ever been published in it, for free online. These articles can also be printed for offline reading.

The entire contents of three of his books, Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey, and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, can be found in back issues of The New Yorker, except for two of the short stories in Nine Stories, which can be found for free online. I've listed the dates of The New Yorker issues for anyone who wants to print these articles from the web site or from library copies. I've also included links to the full text versions of Down at the Dinghy and De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period from Nine Stories.

I'll still need to purchase The Catcher in the Rye, though.

Nine Stories
1. A Perfect Day for Bananafish: The New Yorker, 1/31/48
2. Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut: The New Yorker, 3/20/48
3. Just Before the War with the Eskimos: The New Yorker, 6/5/48
4. The Laughing Man: The New Yorker, 3/19/49
5. Down at the Dinghy: Harper's, 4/49
6. For Esmé with Love and Squalor: The New Yorker, 4/8/50
7. Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes: The New Yorker, 7/14/51
8. De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period: World Review 5/52
9. Teddy: The New Yorker, 1/31/53

Franny and Zooey
1. Franny: The New Yorker, 1/29/55
2. Zooey: The New Yorker, 5/4/57

Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction
1. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters: The New Yorker, 11/19/55
2. Seymour: An Introduction: The New Yorker, 6/6/59

hey kidzdoc can I make a little suggestion?

Both Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction are about the same characters: Salinger's famous Glass family. Now - from the Nine Stories the ones that deal with the Glasses are: A Perfect Day for Bananafish (Seymour Glass), Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut (Walt Glass) and Down at the Dinghy (Boo Boo Glass). So whoever of you guys wants to have a sense of continuity can maybe read those three stories together, after F&Z or after RHTRBC&SAI, rather than together with the rest of the short stories from Nine Stories, who are not related to the Glass Family at all.

Just a suggestion of course. In any case make sure to read Nine Stories AFTER his novels (at least AFTER Franny and Zooey) because the short stories related to the Glass family will make MUCH more sense if you've read the novels first.

Also, there is one more work of Salinger's that hasn't been mentioned: Hapworth 16, 1929. It was going to be published January first but it keeps being postponed. It is a short story and belongs to the Glass Family saga and you can find it online here:

http://www.freeweb.hu/tchl/salinger/hapworth.html

I think it is quite important in revealing Seymour's character and sense of humour.

Thanks for the info both of you!

I just read the "Down at the Dinghy" story but girlunderglass is right to say that the stories don't really have much impact unless you read his other works. I have only read Catcher (and it was so long ago) so this short story felt like I was just reading a random chapter out of a book.

Unfortunately I'm not really a Salinger fan to wish to seek out his other stuff.

Given the modest output by J.D. Salinger, is is really quite remarkable how much impact he has had on American letters.

Has he had that much impact on American letters? We're all forced to read him in high school because he wrote about adolescents and educators somehow think that adolescents want to read about people like themselves. But outside of maybe Philip Roth, has he had that much influence on other writers?

News Update on J.D. Salinger per August 2013

JD Salinger: authors claim posthumous works are on the way
Biographers say they have uncovered the secret of what Salinger was working on in his long years as a literary recluse

http://www.theguardian.com/books/2013/aug/25/salinger-authors-claim-posthumous-w...

In September 2013, a new biography on J.D. Salinger was published: Salinger by David Shields.

Has anyone read it?

http://books.simonandschuster.com/Salinger/Shane-Salerno/9781476744834

or seen the film...

http://salingerfilm.com/