It is in the form of a letter from camp written by a seven-year-old Seymour Glass (the main character of "A Perfect Day for Bananafish").
After its appearance in The New Yorker, Salinger – who had already withdrawn to his house in New Hampshire – stopped publishing altogether. Since he never put the story between hard covers, readers had to seek out a copy of that issue or find it on microfilm. In 1996, Orchises Press, a small publishing house in Virginia, announced that it would reprint "Hapworth," and received substantial coverage in the press. Shortly before the books were to be shipped, Salinger changed his mind, and in accordance with his wishes, Orchises withdrew the work. Publication has been repeatedly pushed back. It has recently been rescheduled for publication on January 1 2009, which will be J.D. Salinger’s ninetieth birthday.
Since the release of The Complete New Yorker on DVD in 2005, Salinger's story is once again widely available.