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What a Creep: J.D. Salinger, Joyce Maynard & Messy Memoirs

by | Jan 12, 2024 | Podcast

What a Creep

Season 23, Episode 4

J.D. Salinger

In 1972, a teenager named Joyce Maynard wrote a New York Times magazine piece titled “An 18-Year-Old Looks Back at Life.” The daughter of artistic, brilliant parents who had many issues and tended to treat her as an adult–she was precocious and a veteran of magazine writing by the time she graduated from high school. 

Written during her first year at Yale, one of her fan letters was from 53-year-old J.D. Salinger–one of the most famous “genius” reclusives living in New Hampshire. The two had a correspondence, which led to a relationship where she moved in with him and gradually shrunk herself away from the world. Until he carelessly dumped her.

Turns out she is NOT the only young person who falls under his romantic spell. Also, she has some other messiness going on in her life. There is SO much to discuss here!

Trigger Warning: Grooming, eating disorders

Sources for this episode: 

·         Joyce Maynard Wiki

·         NY Times June 1972 “A 18-year-old Looks Back on Life”

·         Joyce Maynard in Vanity Fair

·         Joyce Maynard Vanity Fair (1998)

·         Joyce Maynard in the New Yorker (2019)

·         New York magazine 1998 “JD Salinger’s Women”

·         Ranker

·         KQED

·         JD Salinger’s Documentary “American Masters.”

·         Glamourous Trash podcast with Chelsea Devantez

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