How can I access the unpublished J. D. Salinger short stories at Princeton?

The majority of Special Collections holdings related to JD Salinger can be found in the Story Magazine and Story Press Records (C0104). Notable material includes:

• The unpublished J.D. Salinger short stories (including “The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls”) can be found in box 14, folder 25-26 and box 35, folder 12-13 
• A photocopy of a half-sheet of paper, on which there is a very short biographical note about Salingercan found in Box 27, Folder 22 (“Salinger, J. D., dates not examined”)
•  A typed, signed, single-page note from Salinger to an employee at Story Magazine/Story Press (“Miss Keen”) asking her to continue to send out "nice announcement notes" to a number of people, whose names and addresses are listed, can be found in Box 78, Folder 19. 
• A photocopy of a single-page letter from Harold Ober Associates (Oct. 1916) to Whit Burnett (founder and editor of Story) indicating that Mr. Salinger does not wish the story "Young Folks" to be included in an upcoming compilation publication, is in Box 37, Folder 24.

As is true with all material, the department of Special Collections welcomes all researchers to the reading room, located on C-Floor of Firestone Library, Monday-Friday 9:00am-4:45pm.

Prior to arriving at special collections, patrons will need to register for a Special Collections Research account (you can do so on the Special Collections registration and login page) and upon arrival, check in with the access office on the first floor of Firestone Library in order to obtain a reader photo ID. Please bring a government or school-issued ID to complete this process.  Please see the access guide on the library website for more information on visiting Special Collections. 

Please note that this material is subject to US Copyright Law. Please see the copyright, credit and citation guidelines on the library website for more information on using and reproducing Special Collections material. 

You are welcome to contact Special Collections staff with questions or concerns via the Ask a Question form on our website.