Salinger's Letters To Be Auctioned .c The Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) -- Fourteen letters by J.D. Salinger, the reclusive author of ``The Catcher in the Rye,'' are to be auctioned at Sotheby's, The New York Times reported today. The letters were written between April 1972 and August 1973 to author Joyce Maynard, with whom Salinger had a nine-month romance. Their relationship began when she was an 18-year-old Yale University student and he was 53. The auction is set for June 22. Ms. Maynard quit school to live in an isolated cottage in Cornish, N.H., with Salinger, who has shunned public life. He ended their relationship in 1973. Ms. Maynard, who for 25 years declined to discuss the relationship, last year revealed Salinger's eccentricities and fixations in a memoir, ``At Home in the World.'' She plans to sell the letters, which run the gamut from formal to smitten to impersonal, reflecting the course of their relationship. Salinger, now 80 and still obsessively private, last wrote for publication in 1965. Ms. Maynard said the decision to sell the letters, which will be offered as a lot, was financial. They are expected to fetch up to $80,000, Sotheby's officials said. ``I'd rather put my children through college than own a box full of Salinger's letters,'' said Ms. Maynard, who is divorced and has three children. ``They were a piece of my past that I've finished with, and I'd rather use them to help support my family.'' Salinger's lawyer and literary agent declined to discuss the sale of the 38 pages of letters, which are typed or written in ink or pencil on typing paper, yellow lined paper and a card from the New York Public Library. Salinger, as is his custom, was unavailable for comment. He said in a deposition in the 1980s, though, when an author wanted to use some of his other letters for a book: ``Privacy is privacy. Letters were meant for a certain pair of eyes and those eyes alone.'' AP-NY-05-12-99 0721EDT Copyright 1998 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without prior written authority of The Associated Press. To edit your profile, go to keyword <A HREF="aol://1722:NewsProfiles">NewsProfiles </A>. For all of today's news, go to keyword <A HREF="aol://1722:News">News</A>. --part1_8c5fb82e.246b0178_boundary-- --------- End forwarded message ---------- ___________________________________________________________________ You don't need to buy Internet access to use free Internet e-mail. Get completely free e-mail from Juno at http://www.juno.com/getjuno.html or call Juno at (800) 654-JUNO [654-5866]