Westport and the world are about to learn more about one of its and America’s most influential and enigmatic writers, J.D. Salinger. 
J.D. Salinger: Completed “The Catcher in the Rye” in Westport. File photo
Salinger, who completed his most famous work “The Catcher in the Rye” while renting a home on Old Road and who died in 2010, is about to enter the digital revolution, according to his son, Matt Salinger of Wilton.
The younger Salinger told The New York Times that in an effort to get his father’s works before a new generation of readers, Little Brown this week is publishing digital editions of the author’s four books.
In addition, with the younger Salinger’s help, the New York Public Library this fall will host the first public exhibition from Salinger’s personal archives.
The newspaper said it will feature letters, family photographs, and the typescript from “The Catcher in The Rye” with the author’s handwritten edits, along with about 160 other items.
And over what the younger Salinger estimated would take five to seven years, there are plans to release decades worth of Salinger’s writings.
The decision to make his father’s works and papers available to a new generation was a wrenching one.
“I’ve spent my whole life protecting him and not talking about him,” Matt Salinger said of his famously secretive father.
