Editing Hapworth 16, 1924 (section)

==Plot==

46-year-old Buddy Glass reproduces the contents of a letter written by his older brother Seymour, who died by suicide 17 years earlier in 1948. Seymour wrote the letter to their parents while he and Buddy (two years his junior) were attending Camp Simon Hapworth, Maine, in 1924. The literary voice conveyed in the letter is that of a highly articulate and strikingly precocious boy of seven. The letter, written from the camp infirmary (Seymour has injured his leg) is a wide-ranging commentary on the camp personnel, the camp attendees, and his relationships with his family, humanity and God. Seymour and Buddy largely prefer to occupy themselves writing poems and short stories rather than participate in group activities. They therefore meet with some hostility.

Seymour devotes a large part of the letter to enumerating his reading list and requests for further reading material from his parents. He offers critical appraisals of a number of major literary figures. The letter closes with a lengthy discourse on the significance of God.<ref>Slawenski, 2010 pp. 364-370: Detailed plot summary.</ref><ref>Wenke, 1991 p. 25, And p. 91: “...the form of ‘Hapworth’ is epistolary…”</ref>