© 2024 New Hampshire Public Radio

Persons with disabilities who need assistance accessing NHPR's FCC public files, please contact us at publicfile@nhpr.org.
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
🚗 🚗 🚗 Donate your old vehicle to NHPR and support local, independent journalism. It's easy and free!

J.D. Salinger's Books are Finally Going Digital

CREDIT © 2019, UNIVERSITY OF NEW HAMPSHIRE, LOTTE JACOBI COLLECTION.

 

You'll finally be able to catch the late J.D. Salinger's books in digital format.

Longtime Salinger publisher Little, Brown and Company said all four of his works, including "The Catcher in the Rye," will be made available as e-books Tuesday, marking the first time that the entirety of his published work will be available in digital format.

His son, Matt Salinger, said the digital holdout ended because many readers use e-books exclusively and some people with disabilities can only use them.

"There were few things my father loved more than the full tactile experience of reading a printed book, but he may have loved his readers more — and not just the 'ideal private reader' he wrote about, but all his readers," said Salinger, who helps oversee his father's literary estate.

In addition to "The Catcher in the Rye," the e-books include "Nine Stories," ''Franny and Zooey," and "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction."

The electronic publication continues a yearlong centennial celebration of author's birth and his contributions to literature.

Salinger, who died in 2010, lived a reclusive life in Cornish, New Hampshire, and rarely spoke to the media. He not only stopped releasing new work, but rejected any reissues or e-book editions.

But things are changing. In addition to the e-books, there have been new covers and a boxed edition.

Matt Salinger also has said unpublished work by his late father will be coming out. But he said any publication of new works may be years away.

 
 

Related Content

You make NHPR possible.

NHPR is nonprofit and independent. We rely on readers like you to support the local, national, and international coverage on this website. Your support makes this news available to everyone.

Give today. A monthly donation of $5 makes a real difference.