Play It in the Closet: The Return Farewell of J.D. Salinger

43 years ago J.D. Salinger, the reclusive writer who rose to cult status in the 1950s and early 1960s on the strength of his novel The Catcher in the Rye and his stories about the talented but troubled Glass family, bade farewell to the published literary life with a long piece of fiction titled Hapworth 16, 1924. It appeared in the New Yorker in June of 1965 and elicited little critical or commercial fanfare; the Salinger media mania that accompanied the publication of his book Franny and Zooey in 1961 had almost completely subsided. Now it appears that “Hapworth" may be coming out in book form next January.