- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJerome David Salinger
- Height6′ 2″ (1.88 m)
- U.S. writer whose novel "The Catcher in the Rye" (1951) won critical acclaim and devoted admirers, especially among the post-World War II generation of college students. His entire corpus of published works consists of that one novel and 13 short stories, all originally written in the period 1948-59. Salinger was the son of a Jewish father and a mother who adopted Judaism, and, like Holden Caulfield, the hero of "The Catcher in the Rye", he grew up in New York City, attending public schools and a military academy. After brief periods at New York and Columbia universities, he devoted himself entirely to writing, and his stories began to appear in periodicals in 1940. After his return from service in the U.S. Army (1942-46), Salinger's name and writing style became increasingly associated with "The New Yorker" magazine, which published almost all of his later stories. Some of the best of these made use of his wartime experiences: "For Esmé - With Love and Squalor" (1950) describes a U.S. soldier's poignant encounter with two British children; "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" (1948) concerns the suicide of the sensitive, despairing veteran Seymour Glass. Major critical and popular recognition came with the publication of "The Catcher in the Rye", whose central character, a sensitive, rebellious adolescent, relates in authentic teenage idiom his flight from the "phony" adult world, his search for innocence and truth, and his final collapse on a psychiatrist's couch. The humor and colorful language of "The Catcher in the Rye" place it in the tradition of Mark Twain's "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn" and the stories of Ring Lardner, but its hero, like most of Salinger's child characters, views his life with an added dimension of precocious self-consciousness. "Nine Stories" (1953), a selection of Salinger's best work, added to his reputation. The reclusive habits of Salinger,an obsessively private man especially over the last half-century of his life, made his personal life a matter of speculation among devotees, while his small literary output was a subject of controversy among critics. "Franny and Zooey" (1961) brought together two earlier New Yorker stories; both deal with the Glass family, as do the two stories in "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters"; and "Seymour: An Introduction" (1963).- IMDb Mini Biography By: Marcos Eduardo Acosta Aldrete
- SpousesColleen O'Neill(1991 - January 27, 2010) (his death)Claire Douglas(February 17, 1955 - October 3, 1967) (divorced, 2 children)Sylvia Welter(October 18, 1945 - 1946) (divorced)
- Children
- ParentsSolomon "Sol" SalingerMiriam J. Jillich Salinger
- RelativesGannon Salinger(Grandchild)Avery Salinger(Grandchild)
- His characters are often young people or adolescents.
- Reclusive personality.
- Mark David Chapman was obsessed with "Catcher in the Rye" and was found calmly reading the book when he was arrested for the murder of John Lennon, lead singer of The Beatles.
- A neighbor once went to his house to see if Salinger would contribute to a local charity. Salinger met him in the driveway with a gun in his hand and told the man to go away.
- Was so incensed by Hollywood's treatment of his story "Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut" that he has refused to sell the movie rights to any of his stories to Hollywood. It is reported that his last will and testament has a stipulation blocking any Hollywood adaptations of his works after his death.
- Suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder after returning from World War II.
- Despite stating his hatred for technology in his novel "The Catcher in the Rye," he has a computer in his home as well as an AOL e-mail account.
- I'm quite illiterate, but I read a lot.
- There's no more to Holden Caulfield. Read the book again. It's all there. Holden Caulfield is only a frozen moment in time.
- I'm aware that many of my friends will be saddened and shocked, or shock-saddened, over some of the chapters in 'The Catcher in the Rye'. Some of my best friends are children. In fact, all my best friends are children. It's almost unbearable for me to realize that my book will be kept on a shelf, out of their reach.
- What I like best is a book that's at least funny once in a while. What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happens much though.
- I love to write, but I write just for my own pleasure. There is a marvelous peace in not publishing.
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