For a time, Salinger continued to publish. His short story “Franny” appeared in the January 29, 1955, issue of the New Yorker. Franny is the youngest of the Glass daughters. She is confused by her desire for a spiritual relationship and her physical, sexual involvement with a crude boyfriend. The May 4, 1957, New Yorker carried a companion piece, “Zooey,” in which Franny’s older brother guides her while discovering his own spiritual awareness. “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters” (1955) is Buddy Glass’s recollection of Seymour’s scheduled wedding and the reactions of the guests when the groom failed to attend. “Seymour: An Introduction” (1959) offers Buddy’s attempt to explain Seymour to the general reader.
“Hapworth 16, 1924” (in the New Yorker on June 19, 1965) was Salinger’s last publication for many years. In early 1997, however, Salinger’s representatives announced that Orchises Press in Alexandria, Virginia, would publish this novella in book form. The story consists of a long letter from Seymour Glass to his family, concerning his experiences at summer camp at the age of seven.
In 1998, Joyce Maynard published a memoir (At Home in the World) recalling her 1972 affair, at the age of 18, with J.D. Salinger. Along with numerous bizarre details, she reports that the author had two completed, unpublished novels kept in a vault.
