J.D. Salinger's One-Sentence Note to Maid On Sale for $50,000

An ”exceedingly rare” handwritten letter from the late author J.D. Salinger has hit Ebay with a $50,000 ‘Buy It Now’ price tag.


The high price is even more unusual because of the length of the note – it contains a single line of just 26 words. The correspondence is addressed to his maid, Mary, and is dated March 12th, 1989. The full, barely legible text reads:


“Dear Mary — Please make sure all the errands are done before you go on vacation, as I do not want to be bothered with insignificant things. Thank you, J. D. Salinger.”
Including the salutation and author’s name, that totals 30 words – meaning a $50,000 sale would be equivalent to $1,666 a word. The note has been put on sale by Las Vegas memorabilia retailer History For Sale, and comes on Salinger’s monogrammed letterhead.


The use of Salinger’s full name struck me as curious (not that I wish to cast doubt on the authenticity of this piece), and suggests a somewhat formal relationship between the writer and his maid.


As the writer of “Franny and Zooey” and landmark novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” I suspect there’ll be no shortage of collectors interested in this, but considerably fewer who can afford it. The life of Salinger seems to be all the more tantalizing to readers by his hermit-like existence and obsession with guarding his privacy.


Dear Mary — Please make sure all the errands are done before you go on vacation, as I do not want to be bothered with insignificant things. Thank you. J.D. Salinger
It's unclear how the seller—HistoryForSale, which describing itself as "the world's largest dealer of authentic autographs and manuscripts"—got its hands on the note. HFS only offers speculative details, suggesting that the note was probably written in "Cornish, New Hampshire, 1989 March 12," and repeatedly teasing the note's rareness, claiming "Salinger's autograph in any form is scarce and desirable. Because of Salinger's obsession with his privacy, his letters are almost never offered for sale."
Someone's chance to own a piece of the writer who disappeared from public view in the early 1950s and passed away January 27, 2010? Who can say. Collectors can be a strange lot, reverently snatching up everything from airsickness bags to staplers to sugar packets.