 In 1972 , at the age of 53 , Salinger had a relationship with 18 @-@ year @-@ old Joyce Maynard that lasted for nine months . Maynard , at this time , was already an experienced writer for Seventeen magazine . The New York Times had asked Maynard to write an article for them which , when published as " An Eighteen @-@ Year @-@ Old Looks Back On Life " on April 23 , 1972 , made her a celebrity . Salinger wrote a letter to her warning about living with fame . After exchanging 25 letters , Maynard moved in with Salinger the summer after her freshman year at Yale University . Maynard did not return to Yale that fall , and spent ten months as a guest in Salinger 's Cornish home . The relationship ended , he told his daughter Margaret at a family outing , because Maynard wanted children , and he felt he was too old . Nevertheless , in her own autobiography , Maynard paints a different picture , saying Salinger abruptly ended the relationship and refused to take her back . She had dropped out of Yale to be with him , even forgoing a scholarship . Maynard later writes in her own memoir how she came to find out that Salinger had begun relationships with young women by exchanging letters . One of those letter recipients included Salinger 's last wife , a nurse who was already engaged to be married to someone else when she met the author . 
