J.D. Salinger, the author of the famous coming-of-age novel, The Catcher in the Rye, draws you into the minds of sensitive rebels without a cause and quiet moments within the gritty New York City. Salinger himself grew up in New York and his personal experiences can be deeply felt in the writing of his stories and characters.
The American author J.D. Salinger lived from 1919 to 2010.
J.D. Salinger's biography
Jerome David Salinger was an American novelist and short story writer, best known for his classic coming of age novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1951). Salinger's school and military experiences heavily influenced his writing. His writing is known for its personal, colloquial, first-person narration.
Facts about J.D. Salinger
- J.D. Salinger was an American author who lived from 1919 to 2020.
- Salinger grew up in New York City, and later lived a reclusive life on his estate in New Hampshire.
- Salinger's most famous books are The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey, and Nine Stories.
- Salinger is known for writing about the experience of teenagers who experience feelings of loneliness and isolation.
- Salinger served in World War II and suffered a nervous breakdown.
- Salinger is known for his characters' realistic dialogue.
J.D. Salinger's life
J.D. Salinger's life directly influenced his writing. Many aspects of his own experience and personality are reflected in his characters. Salinger drew much inspiration for the main character and narrator of The Catcher in the Rye (1951), Holden Caulfield, from his own life. His experience serving in World War II and suffering a nervous breakdown are also reflected in his works. For example, the short story, 'For Esmé'—with Love and Squalor (1950), about a sergeant who meets a clever, young girl from a church choir before being sent to fight in World War II.
Salinger's childhood
Jerome David Salinger was born in New York City on New Year's Day—January 1, 1919—to Sol and Miriam Salinger. His father, a Jewish man of Lithuanian descent, was in the business of importing kosher ham and cheese. His mother, Miriam, was born as Marie. She was of Irish and Scottish descent but changed her name to please her husband's Jewish family. Salinger had a sister who was three years older than him named Doris.
Most of Salinger's writing is set in New York City, where he grew up.
Salinger's schooling
Though having an inclination for writing from his teenage years, Salinger was not a particularly good student. He often had trouble fitting in and attended many different schools and universities. His experience at prep schools and military schools is reflected in Holden's experience in Catcher in the Rye.
From 1932 to 1934, Salinger attended McBurney School. He wrote for the school's newspaper, was captain of the fencing team, and was active in school plays and drama. He had a talent for acting, but his father did not approve of it as a profession. For the second half of his high school career, Salinger attended Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania, where he began secretly writing stories, was editor of the yearbook, and participated in many clubs. During his senior year of high school, Salinger declared that he would be a writer for the New Yorker—a dream that would require many submissions and rejections, but would eventually come true.
Salinger's university life was sporadic. He was a freshman at New York University but dropped out towards the end of the school year. His father then suggested he go to learn about the family meat and cheese importing business in Austria and Poland. Salinger went only to be horrified by the meat industry, and he was lucky to leave Austria just before the country was taken over by Nazi Germany in March 1938. Salinger came back and attended one semester at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania, but dropped out. His most significant higher education experience was at Columbia University, where he took a writing class with Story magazine editor, Whit Burnett, who helped him publish his first story, "The Young Folks" in 1940, and became his mentor for several years.
Salinger's time in the military
Salinger was drafted to serve in the army during World War II. He served from 1942 until the end of the war in September 1945, and then served for an additional 6 months after the war as part of a "Denazification" duty. He began combat on D-Day, landing on Utah Beach and participating in the Normandy invasions.
During the war, Salinger began corresponding with Ernest Hemingway, the famous American author who was a war correspondent based in Paris at the time. Salinger continued writing throughout wartime, and Hemingway testified to his talent.
Salinger's experience in World War II greatly influenced his writings. It took a severe toll on his mental health as he suffered from a nervous breakdown, likely due to post-traumatic stress disorder. Mental health is a common theme of his writings, as he explores loneliness, anxiety, depression, and suicide.
Salinger's personality
Salinger was widely known for being reclusive from the public—rejecting offers for interviews and maintaining close relations with very few. He greatly desired privacy, and a few years after he rocketed to fame with the 1951 publication of The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger moved to the countryside of Cornish, New Hampshire, where he remained for the majority of the rest of his life.
Salinger was a film buff and loved to discuss movies. However, a poorly executed and reviewed adaptation of his short story, 'Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut,' prevented him from giving film rights for any of his other stories.
Salinger was married three times and had a number of controversial relationships with young women. He had two children, Margaret (born in 1955) and Matthew Salinger (born in 1960), with his second wife, Claire Douglas. The couple was married from 1955 to 1967, and had a tumultuous relationship.
Salinger explored many religions and practices, such as Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, Christian Science, Kriya yoga, homeopathy, and acupuncture. His adherence to ever-changing beliefs strained his family and personal life. The exploration of religious themes can be seen especially in the short story, 'Zooey' (1961) about a precocious teenage girl who tries to evade her everyday reality by unceasingly saying a prayer. Many parallels between the character, Zooey Glass, and Salinger's wife, Claire, have been drawn, as they both had short, dark hair, fair skin, and felt confused about religion.
J.D. Salinger's cause of death
Salinger died of natural causes in his New Hampshire home on January 27, 2010, at the age of 91. He had been entirely healthy, except for a broken hip the previous year, as reported by his widow, Colleen O'Neill.
J.D. Salinger's books
Although the last story he published was 'Hapworth 16, 1924' in 1965, Salinger wrote consistently throughout his lifetime. His widow, Colleen O'Neill, and son, Matthew, were left in charge of his estate and future publications of his unseen writings.
Salinger's Published Books
- The Catcher in the Rye (1951) — Salinger's classic coming-of-age novel which has sold over 65 million copies.
- Nine Stories (1953) — A collection of nine of Salinger's short stories originally published in The New Yorker between 1948 and 1952, including 'A Perfect Day for Bananafish' (1948), 'Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut' (1948), and 'For Esmé—with Love and Squalor' (1950)
- Franny and Zooey (1961) — A book of two stories about a brother and sister, Franny and Zooey Glass, who are the youngest two members of the unconventional, intellectual, Glass family.
- Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963) — Two stories about the eldest brothers of the Glass family, Buddy and Seymour.
- Three Early Stories (2014) — A collection of three of Salinger's early stories written between 1940 and 1944, published after his death.
J.D. Salinger's quotes
This opening of The Catcher in the Rye, immediately sets Holden's sarcastic tone for the novel, and indicates how he freely says what he thinks, but in a way that is highly self-aware. This acute self-awareness met with causality and the pretense of not caring is a trademark of Salinger's narration.
Salinger often has a satirical, colloquial style of writing, as shown by these quotes from The Catcher in the Rye:
Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
In The Catcher in the Rye, Holden does not want to miss people or be sentimental, but it is something he cannot avoid. Salinger uses this to show Holden's sensitivity in a way that fits into his teenage boy character.
Salinger's characters are often dissatisfied and searching for something more amidst regular life, as reflected in these quotes from Franny and Zooey:
It's everybody, I mean. Everything everybody does is so — I don't know — not wrong, or even mean, or even stupid necessarily. But just so tiny and meaningless and — sad-making. And the worst part is, if you go bohemian or something crazy like that, you're conforming just as much only in a different way.”
The "phoniness" Holden disapproves of in The Catcher in the Rye is also reflected in the characters Franny and Zooey, as they despise conformity but do not know where to turn without going mad.
I'm sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.”
Salinger makes use of unlikely maxims to help readers understand characters through their principles and thought processes. In the Catcher in the Rye, Holden is searching for stability, but is forced to acknowledge he lives in a world of change so he tries not to get attached or be overly sentimental about people.
J.D. Salinger's writing style, themes, and influences
Let's look now at some aspects of Salinger's writing.
Salinger's writing style
Salinger is known as a master of realistic dialogue. His writing style is quite informal, reflecting the everyday speech and internal dialogue of his protagonists (usually teenagers and young adults). The Catcher in the Rye was quite controversial due to its use of frequent "inappropriate" language.
Rather than being driven by big plot events, Salinger's writing relates to readers through the expansion of more subtle, everyday moments, observations, and realizations.
Common themes in Salinger's writing
Salinger's writing often focuses on adolescent characters and children. He depicts children as insightful, and as having greater depth than most adults. The theme of nostalgia for childhood and an attachment to the past is common in Salinger's novels. Characters in Salinger's writings often deal with themes of growing up, isolation, anxiety, depression, not fitting in, and disapproval of conformity. Salinger's stories often draw attention to characters' deteriorating mental health and how they cope with it. As drawn from his personal life, topics of war and religion are frequently found in his stories.
Salinger's Literary Influences
Some of the writers Salinger admired are Dostoevsky, John Keats, William Blake, Robert Burns, Jane Austen, Henry James, Franz Kafka, Leo Tolstoy, and F. Scott Fitzgerald.
Writers such as John Updike, Philip Roth, Haruki Murakami, John Green, and Stephen Chbosky have cited Salinger as an influence. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye has also been mentioned in songs by Billy Joel and Green Day.
J.D. Salinger - Key takeaways
J.D. Salinger was an American novelist and short story writer best known for his coming-of-age novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1951).
Salinger was not a very good student. His high school experiences heavily influenced The Catcher in the Rye.
Salinger served in World War II and suffered a nervous breakdown from PTSD, which greatly influenced his writing.
Salinger was known as a recluse and was strict about his privacy.
Salinger was interested in numerous religions, spiritual practices, and health practices.
Common themes found in his writings are: isolation, loneliness, conformity, depression, dissatisfaction with society, growing up, nostalgia for childhood, and religion.
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