Three Stories

THREE STORIESJ. D. SALINGER [This file consists of edited versions of the three stories leaked on November 27, 2013. The stories appeared on the internet in the form of image files that seem to be derived from raw OCR text of a scan of the original manuscripts. As such they were often hard to read, since Salinger’s manuscripts, the OCR text, and the image files were all in an unfinished state. For this release of those stories, the image files were OCR’d, consistent formatting was applied to the output, and the text was proofread and edited for consistency and readability. Obvious errors (some of which were Salinger’s, and some of which apparently were introduced via the scanning/OCR process) have been corrected, especially in punctuation, but also in spelling and other areas. For “Birthday Boy” and “Paula,” it was necessary to edit the text in several places to make it intelligible. These editorial intrusions into Salinger’s text are as minimal as possible; the only goal has been to make the stories readable. In one or two cases the editor was unable to determine the meaning, so the text was not changed; in a few other cases, guesswork was necessary (e.g., “sniped” has here been changed to “snipped”), and others might come to different conclusions about Salinger’s intentions.]The Ocean Full of Bowling BallsBirthday BoyPaulaLetter to John Woodman Overview: Jerome David Salinger was an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last interview in 1980. Raised in Manhattan, Salinger began writing short stories while in secondary school, and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948 he published the critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in The New Yorker magazine, which became home to much of his subsequent work. In 1951 Salinger released his novel The Catcher in the Rye, an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield was influential, especially among adolescent readers. The novel remains widely read and controversial, selling around 250,000 copies a year.