Jerome David "J. D." Salinger (born January 1, 1919) is an American author, best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his reclusive nature. He has not published an original work since 1965 and has not been interviewed since 1980.
Raised in Manhattan, New York, Salinger began writing short stories while in secondary school, and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948 he published the critically-acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in The New Yorker magazine, which
became home to much of his subsequent work. In 1951 Salinger released his first novel, The Catcher in the Rye, an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield was influential, especially among adolescent readers. The novel remains widely read, selling around 250,000 copies a year.
The success of The Catcher in the Rye led to public attention and scrutiny; Salinger became reclusive, publishing new work less frequently. He followed Catcher with two collections of short stories: Nine Stories (1953), and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963), and published another novel called Franny and Zooey. His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924," appeared in The New Yorker in 1965.
Afterwards, Salinger struggled with unwanted attention, including a legal battle in the 1980s with biographer Ian Hamilton and the release in the late 1990s of memoirs written by two people close to him: Joyce Maynard, an ex-lover; and Margaret Salinger, his daughter. In 1996, a small publisher announced a deal with Salinger to publish "Hapworth 16, 1924" in book form, but amid the ensuing publicity, the release was indefinitely delayed.
Some quotes from J D Salinger...
All morons hate it when you call them a moron. J. D. Salinger
An artist's only concern is to shoot for some kind of perfection, and on his own terms, not anyone else's. J. D. Salinger
Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell. J. D. Salinger
He had a theory, Walt did, that the religious life, and all the agony that goes with it, is just something God sics on people who have the gall to accuse Him of having created an ugly world. J. D. Salinger
Salinger’s father wanted him to follow in his footsteps as a meat importer, sending his son to Austria to learn the trade. Salinger left Austria just one month before the country fell to Hitler.
He served in the army during World War II, saw action in D-Day, was among the first American soldiers to enter a liberated concentration camp, and interrogated prisoners of war as a counter-intelligence officer.
The Catcher in the Rye was one of the most banned books and paradoxically one of the most taught books of the twentieth century.
The character Holden Caulfield first appeared in the short story “Slight Rebellion Off Madison.”
Salinger has been at various times a Zen Buddhist, a Christian Scientist, and a Scientologist.
