"Whose Life is It Anyway? J.D. Salinger's Secret Love Letters Are For Sale At Sotheby's"

This article was featured in Newsweek May 24th 1999.  In this story a reknowned Writer and Journalist Joyce Maynard is planning to auction a  fan's note she recieved from then 53 year-old  J. D. Salinger, when she was a  Yale freshman, in praise for her article that the New York Times, then, had described as " 'An 18-year-old looks back on life' ". He had "begged her to guard his privacy" when he sent her the note. This had later developed into an affair between Joyce Maynard and J. D. Salinger. 10 months after moving in with him, J. D Salinger kicks Joyce Maynard out. 

27 years later, Joyce Maynard is considering auctioning this fan-note along with other letters she received from J.D. Salinger, during the affair, with this justification: "I'm a single mother of three children," explains Maynard, 45, from her home in California. "I don't feel any embarrassment at the financial reality of being a writer who's not J. D. Salinger." 

This story left me wondering about whether or not Joyce Maynard was in violation of journalistic ethics by;

• Violating the privacy of J.D. Salinger which had begged her not to do. Or was it okay for her to do so after she found out what his motives for this plea had been?
• Auctioning these letters to meet her financial needs even if they would damage J.D Salinger's image and reputation?
• Besides, she was an adult at the time the affair started and I assume that she had  made a conscious decision to leave school and live with him.

Just because things didn't work out between them does not give her reason to use her Journalistic celebrity to auction private information to the public for financial benefit.

   To read more about this article, go to this link...http://www.newsweek.com/id/88375