Five new Salinger books to be released by 2020.

[Rev. Rye]

As you might have guessed by my username, J.D. Salinger is one of my favourite authors. In fact, I've said something along the line of this to several fellow Fiction Writing students in school: "Read The Catcher in the Rye because nobody but Salinger can understand your tortured teenage soul. Read 9 Stories because you need to know how story-writing works. Read Franny and Zooey because you're starting to feel spiritual yearnings and you hear it's even better than Catcher. And read Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters, because, well, you've read the other three books."

In fact, it looks like, sometime in the next few years, I may have to change this, because of news from the Salinger camp:

You see, Shane Salerno and David Shields have been working on a biography of Salinger (both in documentary and book form) and it's finally being released. It's being touted as being the definitive biography, but news from outside says it's... questionable to say the least.

But they've revealed something amazing in the past few days. You see, Salinger hasn't published anything in almost 50 years. And that's especially surprising given that he's been alive for 45 of them. But, now, starting in 2015, it looks like five books will be released. Here's what I've been able to gather about them:

1) "The Family Glass"- A collection of all the existing Glass Family stories with five extra, unpublished stories.
2) "The Last and Best of the Peter Pans"- a short story written in 1942, originally due to be published by "Story," but pulled by Salinger for some reason, which has been retooled, and may be published along with other stories revolving around the Caulfield family, perhaps even including "Catcher in the Rye."
3) "A Counterintelligence Agent’s Diary" - a novella about his time interrogating prisoners of war when he served working in the counter-intelligence division, culminating in the Holocaust, which apparently led to him developing PTSD.
4) An untitled World War II Love Story - a novel based on his brief marriage to Sylvia Welter, who he would leave after finding out she worked with the Gestapo.
5) An untitled religious manual talking about his past with Advaita Vedanta Hinduism, the religion that seemed to stick with the most with the Church-hopping Salinger, and it may even include several short stories in its pages.

Any thoughts?

[Faith No More]

I've only read Catcher in the Rye. I remember liking it, but I was seventeen at the time. My tastes in literature have changed quite a bit since then. I've got so many books on my reading list that only extremely interesting ones can jump up the list. How would you convince me that Salinger books are worth the read?

[Captain Colostomy]

I thought Franny and Zooey was an excellent read when I was 14. Of course, the same praise went to Mad Magazine.

I'll try to keep an eye open for these, whenever they surface.

[Silver]

Never read anything of his. I have heard of Catcher in the Rye being required reading in high school, but it was never required where I attended.

[Jackalope]

I had to read Catcher in the Rye as a sophomore in High School. I'm guessing I might have enjoyed it had I not been required to read it, but being 14-15 at the time, I'm sure I had better things to do. Haven't read any of his other work.

[downbeatplumb]

This is an american thing isn't it!
I have only heard of Catcher in the rye in relation to the inspiration for various murders.

The most well-known event associated with The Catcher in the Rye is arguably Mark David Chapman's shooting of John Lennon.[13] Chapman identified with the novel's narrator to the extent that he wanted to change his name to Holden Caulfield. On the night he shot Lennon, Chapman was found with a copy of the book in which he had written "This is my statement" and signed Holden's name.[14] Later, he read a passage from the novel to address the court during his sentencing.[15] Daniel Stashower speculated that Chapman had wanted Lennon's innocence to be preserved by death, inspired by Holden's wish to preserve children's innocence despite Holden's later realization that children should be left alone.[15]
After John Hinckley, Jr.'s assassination attempt on Ronald Reagan in 1981, police found The Catcher in the Rye among half a dozen other books in his hotel room.[16]
Robert John Bardo, who murdered Rebecca Schaeffer, was carrying the book when he visited Schaeffer's apartment in Hollywood on July 18, 1989.[17]
As numerous murders have been speculated to be connected to the novel, the main character of the film Conspiracy Theory is a paranoid skeptic with an uncontrollable urge to purchase it.[14]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Catcher...ar_culture

[Rev. Rye]

FNM: Maybe reading a short story might be the best if you're pressed for time; look up "A Perfect Day For Bananafish" or "Pretty My Mouth and Green My Eyes," or "For Esme-With Love and Squalor." The complete texts of those stories (and every story by him to be published) are available on several sites.

DP: Yeah, he's written three other books that are less-violence inspiring.

[Jackalope]

This is an american thing isn't it!
I have only heard of Catcher in the rye in relation to the inspiration for various murders.

I'm not surprised, really. It's a novel about a pretty fucked up kid, it's no surprised that people who are fucked up(*) might identify with the protagonist.

(*) Please don't read this as intending insult, but rather in a more self-deprecating manner.

[Rev. Rye]

This is an american thing isn't it!
I have only heard of Catcher in the rye in relation to the inspiration for various murders.

I'm not surprised, really. It's a novel about a pretty fucked up kid, it's no surprised that people who are fucked up(*) might identify with the protagonist.

(*) Please don't read this as intending insult, but rather in a more self-deprecating manner.

That's why I got into him.

[CleanShavenJesus]

I only read Catcher in the Rye, but didn't care for it.