Jim Krawczyk recalls a trip he made to New Hampshire in the 1960s to meet reclusive author J.D. Salinger. After being told by Salinger’s ex-wife, “Anything he says, he says in his books,” Jim eventually tracked down Salinger in person and got a handshake.
Originally aired June 8, 2007, on NPR’s Morning Edition.
Jim Krawczyk (JK)
JK: J.D. Salinger, he lives in Cornish, New Hampshire and one year I went on vacation and I wanted to meet him. When I got to Cornish, I don’t really recall a town or anything. It was like a building with a gas station and a general store all wrapped into one. So I went inside and I told him I said, ’My name is Jim Krawczyk, I’m from Wisconsin. I was wondering if you could tell me where J.D. Salinger lives.’ He says, ’Ha, your never going to see him. Even the delivery boy doesn’t see him. He leaves the groceries in the garage and picks up the money in an envelope.’ I goes, ’Whoa, y’know I come a long way to meet this guy.’
So I talk to a retired school teacher. She gave me directions, further. Now this is so far back in the mountains that it was a dirt road. It was amazing I didn’t get lost. I’m driving along and coming up on this house, and I look and it’s his house. I had a biography of him that described where he lived and everything. I goes, ’Wow, I can’t believe it, it’s just like the book said.’ It’s really neat. I wasn’t afraid, y’know bashful or anything like that. I thought I’m going to be cool about it. So I parked the car, went up, knocked the door. This woman came out. It was his wife. I says, ’Hello, my name is Jim Krawczyk. I’m wondering if I could meet your husband.’ And she goes, ’Anything he says, he says in his books.’ She slammed the door. I goes, ’Whoa,’ I come a long way, this is something. So I turned around and started to go down the steps, she open the door again and she come out to the porch. She says, ’Him and I are divorced and he lives across the road.’ So, uh I went down the road I pulled in his driveway and knocked on the door.’ He had a screen that was like a copper mesh and I really couldn’t see in and I’m straining to see him and everything. And just then a crack of thunder came so loud, it felt like it was just above my head. And it started to rain. He came to the door, he says, ’You better come inside.’ Y’know I goes, ’Whoa,’ he didn’t sit down or anything, he didn’t offer me a cup of coffee or something, nothing y’know. Just what do you want? And so I told him who I was, I asked him if he had ever been in Wisconsin. And he says, ’Yeah.’ He’s been there sometime during the war. I asked, ’Did you think the Catcher in the Rye would be such a popular book?’ And I don’t remember exactly what he said but I think it was, ’It’s been a nightmare.’ And why a nightmare? I don’t know, maybe it’s because he gets so much fan mail or something. I really wanted to ask him, ’Can I see where you work?’ But I didn’t want to be one of the phonies that he writes about. I kind of held back and I said, ’Well, okay thank you very much.’ I shook his hand and that was it. This is somebody that nobody meets. Nobody gets to see him and I was in his kitchen. And I thought, ’Man, this is the best vacation I ever had.”
Freedom School students Deborah Carr, Stephanie Hoze, Teresa Banks, Linda Ward, Glenda Funchess, and Don Denard came to StoryCorps to reflect on their memories from 1964.
