El 4 de marzo de 2012, escribí a Kate Guyonvarch, encargada de gestionar los archivos de la familia Chaplin, para pedirle que me dejara consultar las cartas de J. D. Salinger a Oona O’Neill.
«Hello, my name is Frédéric Beigbeder. I am a French writer and Nathanaël Karmitz gave me your e-mail. I am fascinated by the life of Oona O’Neill and currently working on a new novel about World War Two. As you know Oona met Jerry Salinger when she was sixteen, in 1940, before he went to England, France and Germany during the war. They had a small affair in 1941 and then she fell in love with Charlie Chaplin in Los Angeles... and they lived happily ever after! The reason why I am bothering you is that all biographers of Oona always mention long letters from Salinger to Oona during his training in the US army. As a big fan of American literature and an admirer of Salinger’s and Chaplin’s work, I am very curious to see those letters. It’s not for publication. The Salinger Estate is against any publishing and of course I respect that. But since Mr Salinger’s passing in 2010, I believe these documents are now part of the history of literature of the 20th century. They are treasures and it’s sad that no one can even read them. It would be for me a tremendous honor to be able to spend even a few minutes studying these pages in Lady Chaplin’s archives. I have a theory about them: it is possible that Salinger used his devotion for Oona as inspiration for the first version of The Catcher in the Rye. Which would mean he started his masterpiece using Oona as a Muse, ten years before publishing his only novel! It would be also interesting to compare the Oona letters with his short stories published during the war in Story, Esquire and The Saturday Evening Post, to see if there are similarities. This would contribute greatly to understand the process of Salinger’s writing about World War Two.
Thank you for your time
With my deepest gratitude.
Frédéric Beigbeder»
La respuesta del «Chaplin Office» fue rápida. Me llegó vía correo electrónico unas horas más tarde.
«Dear Frederic
Thank you very much for your email which I have passed on to the Chaplins for their consideration.
As I told Nathanaël, to date they have never authorised access to any writer to these letters, but you never know.
I have asked them for a reply for next Monday, so we’ll write to you again next week.
Kind regards
Kate Guyonvarch»
El 12 de marzo, la respuesta de la familia Chaplin cayó como un jarro de agua fría. Esta vez estaba redactada en francés:
«Hola, Frédéric:
Siento comunicarle que la mayoría de la familia Chaplin no desea poner las cartas de su madre a su disposición para su lectura.
Atentamente,
Kate Guyonvarch»
En respuesta, mandé una misiva repleta de melancolía (también en francés).
«Querida Kate:
Gracias por su amabilidad. Le confieso que un poco me lo esperaba... Peor para mí, o quizá mejor. Así, las famosas cartas de Jerry a Oona conservarán su misterio eterno.
Saludos cordiales,
Frédéric Beigbeder»
Mi carta, sorprendentemente serena, se rebelaba un poco hipócrita. Tengo que admitir que me sentía aliviado por no tener acceso a esa correspondencia mítica. En efecto, si hubiera podido leer las cartas de Jerry de verdad, habría sido incapaz de imaginarlas.