"Lose not heart": J. D. Salinger's Letters to an Aspiring Writer

September 10, 2013, through January 12, 2014

Between 1941 and 1943, J. D. Salinger sent nine letters and postcards to Marjorie Sheard, an aspiring Canadian writer. This important collection of documents, acquired by the Morgan in April 2013, sheds light on Salinger in the early stages of his career. A highlight among the letters is one in which the young author writes to Sheard of "the first Holden story" about a "prep school kid on his Christmas vacation." The Morgan will display the complete correspondence in "Lose not heart," the first public presentation of these revealing letters.

Right:
Marjorie Sheard
Photographic print, early 1940s
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York; MA 7960.11
Gift of Marjorie Sheard Carter, 2012

Left:
J. D. Salinger (1919–2010)
Collection of typed and autograph letters to Marjorie Sheard, 1941–1943
The Morgan Library & Museum, New York; MA 7960.1–10
Purchased for The Dannie and Hettie Heineman Collection as the gift of the Heineman Foundation, 2012
Photography: Graham Haber, 2013