(no subject)
TravROIS@aol.com
Sat, 06 Feb 1999 13:33:40 -0500 (EST)
Yesterday, while in a fit of boredom I looked up "Hapworth 16 1924" on
amazon.com, for no apparent reason. I've already read the book, but I wondered
if there's a date out yet. There was a discription of the delay and then this
statement included in amazon's write up. I've never seen it before, and I
wonder if you're all even interested but here it is.
love-Erinn
The author, JD Salinger , January 29, 1999
for the appleeaters, with regards to hapworth
I suppose that the overread or underthought will presume that I published this
book to capitilize on some eccentric vision of the man-child recluse as we
spiral towards the big 2000. I don't feel the need to justify the stupifyingly
uninteresting story that is the publishing of this book. I feel like i should
tell you something truly heavy and Glass worthy, in honor of Hapworth and all,
otherwise the general readership will lose all faith in this aged and
constantly aging sod. But that's the blindingly off-putting irony, worthy of
perhaps the finest mid-afternoon melodrama (which, by the by, is not much
different than the very worst of said genre), of the whole thing. There's so
much that's been said, so much that's been written, and so much that's been
thought about this writer (a title that I wear not unlike a badge of distinct
honor at a grade school science fair), but there's a precious scarcity of
valuable things that I can think to say back. Just hello, and thank you for
caring about the playthings of my imagination. No flair for the dramatic, dear
reader, just the singularly narrow-minded and perhaps religious desire to
"only connect", as a greater man once said. Hapworth will be out this year,
and it is my sincere intention that those people that enjoyed my other works
will enjoy this one, regardless of its substantial shelf-life, as well.
Seymour would certainly have something better to say, something all inclusive
and inspiring and goddamn frustrating, and if you like that sort of thing,
Hapworth is your ticket, as they say. Until then, thanks to you.