The fascination kicks up a notch when the hermit is famous. And when the recluse lived on the edge of mystery already, let’s say writing literature open to interpretation, we really get curious.
That’s the pull of Thomas Pynchon, an odd-ball writer who was always an enigma on two feet, so, of course he’s never photographed, and of course a certain cult finds that intriguing. At MO Mystery, we’ll discuss Pynchon at a later time.
J D Salinger
Most recently in the news, however, was a reminder of J.D. Salinger. The author of The Catcher in the Rye was another writer who guarded his privacy so jealousy over the years that it only added to the legend.
Matt Salinger
He’s been gone several years now, a recluse right up to his death at 91. But at least some of the memories and documentaries about him suggest that he wrote up until the end, and marked some works for publication between 2015 and 2020. We wouldn’t hold our breath for new works before 2020, but would anything Salinger did, anything he left behind surprise us?
The game of cat and mouse becomes catching, it seems. What’s up with that in our collective psychology?
His son has been a key manager of his affairs, and interviewed by the NYTimes:
