Three unpublished J.D. Salinger stories have surfaced through a mysterious eBay auction that ended in late September.
The three stories, "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls," "Paula," and "Birthday Boy," had been available to read at research libraries but had never been seen in print or online before, BuzzFeed reported.
Shockingly, the auction ended at only around £67.50 or $110. The lot description reads: "3 short stories written by JD Salinger never published at all and that remain in The Ransom Center of the University of Texas at Austin" (sic). Salinger scholar Kenneth Slawenski has confirmed that the stories are authentic.
"While I do quibble with the ethics (or lack of ethics) in posting the Salinger stories, they look to be true transcripts of the originals and match my own copies," Slawenski told BuzzFeed in an email.
Thought to be Salinger's greatest unpublished work, "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" is a prequel of sorts to his classic novel, 1951's "The Catcher in the Rye." It has been available to read in a Princeton library special reading room under supervision.
The three stories are PDFs of a printed booklet that's likely illegal, Entertainment Weekly reported. "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" is not supposed to be published until Jan. 27, 2060 (50 years after Salinger's death), the outlet said.
An enthralling find for the literary scholar, the three stories are a guilty but fascinating look into the mind of Salinger, a famously reclusive writer who only published one novel.
"Reading the stories is an odd experience," BuzzFeed's Summer Anne Burton described. "'The Ocean Full Of Bowling Balls' in particular is magical and sweet and sad, as is all of Salinger, and it's a delight to finally be able to read it and impossible to understand why he would secret it away."
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