“The Catcher in the Rye” is finally available digitally, along with the late J.D. Salinger’s three other published books.
Longtime Salinger publisher Little, Brown and Company made all four of his works available as e-books Tuesday. It’s the first time the entirety of his published work is available in digital format.
“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 Matt Salinger, who helps oversee his father’s literary estate and said the digital holdout ended because many readers use e-books exclusively, including some people with disabilities.
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 the author’s birth and his contributions to literature.
Salinger, who died in 2010, lived a reclusive life in Cornish, New Hampshire. He stopped releasing new work and 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.
In January, Matt Salinger said unpublished work by his late father will be coming out, though that could be years away, confirming that the author continued to write for decades after he stopped publishing books and saying he and Salinger’s widow Colleen were “going as fast as we freaking can” to prepare the material for release.
