Dream Catcher: A Memoir

"My childhood was lush with make-believe: wood sprites, fairies, a bower of imaginary friends, books about lands somewhere East of the Sun and West of the Moon...

In real life, however, it was a world that dangled between dream and nightmare on a gossamer thread my parents wove, without the reality of solid ground to catch a body should he or she fall."

In her much-anticipated memoir, Margaret A. Salinger writes about life with her famously reclusive father, J.D. Salinger — offering a rare look into the man and the myth, what it is like to be his daughter, and the effect of such a charismatic figure on the girls and women closest to him.

Dream Catcher

With generosity and insight, Ms. Salinger has written a book that is eloquent, spellbinding, and wise, yet at the same time retains the intimacy of a novel. Her story chronicles an almost cultlike environment of extreme isolation and early neglect interwoven with times of laughter, joy, and dazzling beauty. She also delves into her parents' lives before her own birth, illuminating their childhoods, their wrenching experiences during World War II, and above all the seeds and real-life inspirations for J.D. Salinger's literary preoccupation with "phonies," protracted innocence, precocious children, and spiritual perfection.

Ms. Salinger compassionately explores the complex dynamics of family relationships. Her story is one that seeks to come to terms with the dark parts of her life that, quite literally, nearly killed her, and to pass on a life-affirming heritage to her own child.

The story of being a Salinger is unique; the story of being a daughter is universal. This book appeals to anyone, J.D. Salinger fan or no, who has ever had to struggle to sort out who she really is from who her parents dreamed she might be.

Salinger's long-awaited memoir of life with her father, J.D. Salinger, is a personal story of unparalleled intimacy and the most revealing portrait ever rendered of history's most reclusive literary icon. With generosity and perception, she has written a book that is eloquent, spellbinding, original, and wise.

"My childhood was lush with make-believe: wood sprites, fairies, a bower of imaginary friends, books about lands somewhere East of the Sun and West of the Moon...

In real life, however, it was a world that dangled between dream and nightmare on a gossamer thread my parents wove, without the reality of solid ground to catch a body should he or she fall."

In her much-anticipated memoir, Margaret A. Salinger writes about life with her famously reclusive father, J.D. Salinger — offering a rare look into the man and the myth, what it is like to be his daughter, and the effect of such a charismatic figure on the girls and women closest to him.

Dream Catcher

With generosity and insight, Ms. Salinger has written a book that is eloquent, spellbinding, and wise, yet at the same time retains the intimacy of a novel. Her story chronicles an almost cultlike environment of extreme isolation and early neglect interwoven with times of laughter, joy, and dazzling beauty. She also delves into her parents' lives before her own birth, illuminating their childhoods, their wrenching experiences during World War II, and above all the seeds and real-life inspirations for J.D. Salinger's literary preoccupation with "phonies," protracted innocence, precocious children, and spiritual perfection.

Ms. Salinger compassionately explores the complex dynamics of family relationships. Her story is one that seeks to come to terms with the dark parts of her life that, quite literally, nearly killed her, and to pass on a life-affirming heritage to her own child.

The story of being a Salinger is unique; the story of being a daughter is universal. This book appeals to anyone, J.D. Salinger fan or no, who has ever had to struggle to sort out who she really is from who her parents dreamed she might be.

Margaret A. Salinger grew up in Cornish, New Hampshire. A Phi Beta Kappa scholar, she was graduated from Brandeis University summa cum laude, won the Saval-Sachar scholarship award for historical research, and was co-winner of the Lester Martin Foundation Award for the best thesis in legal studies. She earned an M.Phil. from Oxford University, and attended Harvard Divinity School as a Williams Scholar. She lives with her husband and son.

Contents

Introduction

Part One
A FAMILY HISTORY: 1900-1955
"How my parents were occupied and all before they had me"

1. "Sometimes Thro' the Mirror Blue"
2. Landsman
3. Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy
4. Detached F-a-c-u-l-t-i-e-s
5. We'll Bolt the Door
6. Reclusion

Part Two
CORNISH: 1955-1968

7. Dream Child, Real Child
8. Babes in the Woods
9. Border Crossing
10. Snipers
11. "However Innumerable Beings Are, I Vow to Save Them"
12. Glimpses
13. "There She Weaves by Night and Day"
14. Journey to Camelot
15. Boot Camp and Iced Tea
16. The Birds and the Bees: Hitchcock's
17. A Perfect Ten
18. Notes from the Underground
19. "To Sir with Love"
20. Safe Harbor: A Brief Interlude Between Islands

Part Three
BEYOND CORNISH

21. Island Redux
22. Christmas
23. Midwinter
24. Springtime in Paradise: The Producers
25. Woodstock
26. Lost Moorings
27. Kindred Spirits
28. The Baby Vanishes
29. A Mind in Port 378
30. "Rowing in Eden"
31. Woman Overboard!
32. On and Off the Fast Track
33. Weaving My Own Life
34. Awakening

Acknowledgments