I’ve heard a lot of stories of weird, hyper-demanding bosses with very specific rules before. (Hell, I’ve also worked for a boss like that.) But this sweet story from author Joanna Smith Rakoff, while about working for someone with a very specific demand, is also really heartwarming. When Rakoff was starting out as an assistant in the NYC publishing world, she was given a very unusual task: keeping Catcher in the Rye author (and notorious recluse) J.D. Salinger’s home address and phone number a closely guarded secret. You see, she worked for Salinger’s literary agent, and while they had direct contact with the author, people would often call the office under all kinds of pretenses trying to get Salinger’s contact information. Young Joanna was warned never, ever, for ANY reason, to let the information get out. Previous assistants had been fired for not hewing to this rule.
In addition to the boring admin work that is de rigeur for assistants, Joanna also got to have the pretty cool task of answering Salinger’s fan mail. I highly recommend checking out the whole article, which is as much a remembrance of Salinger and a celebration of his work as it is a personal reflection, here. Also, I’m biased, because I worked with Joanna on a couple of pieces for the website where I used to work and found her to be lovely, smart, and a great writer. I wonder who would answer it if I sent her fan mail.
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