JEFF W. writes:

I agree with you that Joyce Maynard has exceptional skill for getting publicity and for understanding her reading audience. Her affair with J.D. Salinger was a publicist’s dream. But I do not think that skill developed in a vacuum. Nor am I saying that she has necessarily ever had a paid publicist.

I am old enough to remember her debut at age 18. I remember reading an article (in Newsweek, if I remember correctly) that described her as a “gamine” or “gamine-like,” and I remember having to look up that word in a dictionary. I also remember the puzzlement I felt, after reading some of her thoughts, as to what the fuss was about. She was supposedly the voice of the rising new generation of liberated women, and she was also gifted with remarkable spiritual qualities.

Despite her seeming innate talent for getting publicity, I still do not believe that she could have engineered the deluge of over-the-top publicity that she received at age 18 without some adult help.

I also view her adoption of the two Ethiopian girls as another publicity stunt that she abandoned when it stopped working.

When thinking about Joyce Maynard, I am reminded of H.L. Mencken, who wrote, “I have always been interested in frauds.” Joyce Maynard has always been interesting to me in that way.

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