A visit to the main branch of the New York City Public Library can be a transcendental experience on many levels. Whether you’re charmed by its prominence in movies, television and literature throughout the years, taken aback by its Beaux-Arts style architecture, drawn to one of its exhibits, taken aback by what one can find in its map room, or merely enthralled by all of the books lining the walls of its great reading room, it is one of the best excursions one can make in New York City. And, it’s free!

On my last visit to those hallowed walls, I was there to see the exhibition on the writer, J.D. Salinger. Curated by his son, Matt Salinger and his widow, Colleen Salinger, the exhibition gives a rare glimpse into the personal life and work of one of literature’s most famous recluses. The exhibition runs in conjunction with the centennial of the author’s birth and runs through January 19th, and features over 200 items, including original transcripts and gallery proofs, personal letters, notebooks, passports, correspondences from the army, typewriters and even the books that surrounded his desk! I thought I’d get through the exhibit in no time, especially after seeing the relatively small room where it was located, but after getting completely immersed in the short amount of time I had carved out, I vowed to return at a later date before it closes.

In one legal document, Salinger writes about how he sees himself. It reads, in part: “I am a professional short-story writer and novelist. I write fiction and only fiction. For more than thirty years, I have lived and done my work in rural New Hampshire. I was married here and my two children were raised here. . . . I have been writing fiction rather passionately, singlemindedly, perhaps insatiably, since I was fifteen or so . . . I positively rejoice to imagine that, sooner or later, the finished product safely goes to the ideal private reader, alive or dead or yet unborn, male or female or possibly neither. “