Salinger's letters to mentor donated to NYC museum

[April 10, 2013]  NEW YORK (AP) -- Letters written by J.D. Salinger to a spiritual mentor have been donated to a New York City museum.

The Morgan Library & Museum, based in Manhattan, announced Tuesday that it will receive 28 letters by the author of "The Catcher in the Rye." The letters were written to Swami Vivekananda, founder of the Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, which donated the correspondence. Salinger, who died in 2010 at age 91, was strongly influenced by Eastern religion and philosophy and even mentioned Swami Vivekananda in the story "Hapworth 16, 1924."

Materials given to the Morgan also include letters the center wrote to Salinger and exchanges between the center and Salinger's widow, Colleen O'Neill. The Morgan will exhibit two of the donated letters April 12-19. The museum already had 24 Salinger letters.

[Associated Press]

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