For the first time ever, the work of iconic and enigmatic author J. D. Salinger will be published as digital editions.
As of Tuesday, four of his much-loved works: The Catcher in the Rye, Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymore: An Introduction, will be available as e-books by his long-time publisher, Little, Brown.
The influential books of J. D. Salinger, including The Catcher in the Rye, will be published as a digital release for the first time
Best known for his novel, The Catcher in the Rye, a sprawling account of a day in the life of its protagonist, Holden Caulfield, and an exploration of loss of innocence, Salinger has been cited as an influence on a tremendous amount of authors and musicians including Haruki Murakami, Jonathan Safran Foer and Patti Smith.
The decision was made by Salinger’s son, Matt Salinger, who helps run the J. D. Salinger Literary Trust, and who, up until now, had shirked the idea of Salinger’s work being made available online because of his father’s dislike of technology.
Salinger has spent years trying to respect the privacy of his father, who passed away almost ten years ago and was known for his reclusive habits. His son’s efforts have only helped to preserve the mystery that surrounds the iconic author, who up until now has been considered the most prominent e-book holdout.
However, in an interview with the Associated Press, Salinger described how despite his father’s love of “the full tactile experience of reading a printed book,” he loved his readers and would have wanted them to be able to read his work.
The news comes six months after the Salinger family announced they were going to release the author’s unpublished works, revealing that the author had continued to write for decades after his last published works.
