At Home in the World: A Memoir: A Life With J D Salinger

New York Times bestselling author of Labor Day With a New Preface When it was first published in 1998, At Home in the World set off a furor in the literary world and beyond. Joyce Maynard's memoir broke a silence concerning her relationship—at age eighteen—with J.D. Salinger, the famously reclusive author of The Catcher in the Rye, then age fifty-three, who had read a story she wrote for The New York Times in her freshman year of college and sent her a letter that changed her life. Reviewers called her book "shameless" and "powerful" and its author was simultaneously reviled and cheered. With what some have viewed as shocking honesty, Maynard explores her coming of age in an alcoholic family, her mother's dream to mold her into a writer, her self-imposed exile from the world of her peers when she left Yale to live with Salinger, and her struggle to reclaim her sense of self in the...

In the spring of 1972, Joyce Maynard, a freshman at Yale, published a cover story in The New York Times Magazine about life as a young person in the '60s. Among the many letters of praise, offers for writing assignments, and requests for interviews was a one-page letter from the famously reclusive author, J. D. Salinger.

At Home in the World is the story of a girl who loved and lived with J. D. Salinger, and the woman she became. A crucial turning point in Joyce Maynard's life occurred when her own daughter turned 18 -- the age Maynard was when Salinger first approached her. Breaking a 25-year silence, Joyce Maynard addresses her relationship with Salinger for the first time, as well as the complicated, troubled and yet creative nature of her youth and family. She vividly describes the details of the times and her life with the finesse of a natural storyteller.

Courageously written by a woman determined to allow her life to unfold with authenticity, At Home in the World is a testament to the resilency of the spirit and the honesty of an unwavering eye.

Elizabeth Gleick

Flatly written, with detail piling upon detail like so much slag on a heap. . . .Maynard sheds no light on anything beyond the little spotlight she is standing in. . . .Just because Salinger is a brute, should we feel satisfied that Maynard has shredded his privacy? Just because we are dying to know, does that mean we have the right to know? — Time Magazine

In the spring of 1972, Joyce Maynard, a freshman at Yale, published a cover story in The New York Times Magazine about life in the sixties. Among the many letters of praise, offers for writing assignments, and request for interviews was a one-page letter from the famously reclusive author, J.D. Salinger. At Home in the World is the story of a girl who loved and lived with J.D. Salinger, and the woman she became. A crucial turning point in Joyce Maynard's life occurred when her own daughter turned eighteen--the age Maynard was when Salinger first approached her. Breaking a twenty-five year silence, Joyce Maynard addresses her relationship with Salinger for the first time, as well as the complicated, troubled and yet creative nature of her youth and family. She vividly describes the details of the times and her life with the finesse of a natural storyteller. Courageously written by a women determined to allow her life to unfold with authenticity, At Home in the World is a testament to the resiliency of the spirit and the honesty of an unwavering eye. "At Home in the World explores the story of Maynard's family, her relationship with [J.D.] Salinger, and the way the legendary writer's influence, along with that of her parents, reverberated through her life in the decades that followed. In these pages, she chronicles her painful reentry into the world, her development as a writer, her marriage, her struggle to become a healthy parent to her own children, the death of her parents, and the years, following the end of her marriage, when she set out to rebuild her life"--Jacket The Author Describes Her Love Affair With Reclusive Author J.d. Salinger, Which Began At The Age Of Eighteen, Discussing Her Relationship With Salinger And Her Troubled But Creative Youth. Joyce Maynard. With A New Preface --cover. THE HOUSE WHERE I grew up, in Durham, New Hampshire, is the only one on the street with a fence surrounding it.