Jerome David Salinger died he was 91. Salinger was an
American author, best known for his 1951
novel The Catcher in the Rye, as well as his
reclusive nature. His last original published work was in 1965; he gave his last
interview in 1980. Raised in
Manhattan, 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 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.
[2] The novel remains widely read and controversial,
[3]
selling around 250,000 copies a year.
(
January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010)
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 a short story collection,
Nine Stories (1953), a collection of a
novella and a short story,
Franny and Zooey (1961), and a collection of two novellas,
Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled "
Hapworth 16, 1924", appeared in
The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.
Afterward, 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. He made headlines around the globe in June 2009, after filing a lawsuit against another writer for copyright infringement resulting from that writer's use of one of Salinger's characters from
Catcher in the Rye.
[4] Salinger died of natural causes on January 27, 2010, at his home in
Cornish, New Hampshire.
[5][6][7]
Jerome David Salinger was born in
Manhattan, New York, on
New Year's Day, 1919. His mother, Marie (née Jillich), was of
Scots-Irish descent.
[2] His father, Sol Salinger, was a
Polish Jew who sold
kosher cheese. Salinger's mother changed her name to Miriam and passed as
Jewish. Salinger did not find out that his mother was not Jewish until just after his
bar mitzvah.
[8] He had one sibling: his older sister Doris (1911–2001).
[9]
The young Salinger attended public schools on the West Side of Manhattan, then moved to the private
McBurney School for ninth and tenth grade. He acted in several plays and "showed an innate talent for drama", though his father was opposed to the idea of J.D. becoming an actor.
[10] He was happy to get away from his over-protective mother by entering the
Valley Forge Military Academy in
Wayne, Pennsylvania.
[11] Though he had written for the school newspaper at McBurney, at Valley Forge Salinger began writing stories "under the covers [at night], with the aid of a flashlight."
[12] He started his freshman year at
New York University in 1936, and considered studying
special education,
[13] but dropped out the following spring. That fall, his father urged him to learn about the meat-importing business and he was sent to work at a company in
Vienna, Austria.
[14]
He left Austria only a month or so before it was
annexed by Nazi Germany, on March 12, 1938. He attended
Ursinus College in
Collegeville,
Pennsylvania, for only one semester. In 1939, Salinger attended a
Columbia University evening writing class taught by
Whit Burnett, longtime editor of
Story magazine. According to Burnett, Salinger did not distinguish himself until a few weeks before the end of the second semester, at which point "he suddenly came to life" and completed three stories.
[15] Burnett told Salinger that his stories were skillful and accomplished, and accepted "
The Young Folks", a
vignette about several aimless youths, for publication in
Story.
[15] Salinger's debut short story was published in the magazine's March-April 1940 issue. Burnett became Salinger's mentor, and they corresponded for several years.
[16]
Salinger died of
natural causes at his home in
New Hampshire on January 27, 2010. He was 91.
[6] Salinger's literary representative commented to
The New York Times that the writer had broken his
hip in May 2009, but that "his health had been excellent until a rather sudden decline after the new year."
[107] The representative believed that Salinger's death was not a painful one.
[107]
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