Home > J. D. Salinger

Born in New York City, Salinger began his writing career writing short stories for magazines in New York. Of his early work, several stories -- most notably A Perfect Day for Bananafish stood out. He also published two episodes from what would become The Catcher in the Rye before he had to leave America to join the War: I'm Crazy and Slight Rebellion Off Madison.

His writing was interrupted for a few years by World War II, where he saw combat action in some of the fiercest fighting in the war. This scarred him emotionally, and he later drew upon his wartime experiences in several stories, most notably For Esme - With Love and Squalor , which is narrated by a traumatized soldier.

The Catcher in the Rye, his first novel, was published in 1951 and became hugely popular both among critics and young readers. The book, written in the first person, is narrated by the rebellious, immature but insightful teenager named Holden Caulfield.

Salinger later published Franny and Zooey (1961) and Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters and Seymour -- An Introduction (the latter two appearing together in 1963) as well as other short stories (collected in the book Nine Stories).

After the literary fame and notoriety of The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger became a recluse. He moved from New York to Cornish, New Hampshire where he continued to write novels but did not publish them.

Salinger has tried to escape public exposure and attention as much as possible ("A writer's feelings of anonymity-obscurity are the second most valuable property on loan to him," he has said). But he constantly struggles with the unwanted attention he gets as a cult figure. On learning of British writer Ian Hamilton's intention to publish J. D. Salinger: A Writing Life, a biography including letters Salinger had written to other authors and friends, Salinger sued to stop the book's publication. The book was finally published with the letters' contents paraphrased; the court ruled that though a person may own a letter physically, the language within it belongs to the author.

An unintended result of the lawsuit was that many details of Salinger's private life, including that he had written two novels and many stories but left them unpublished, became public in the form of court transcripts.

Salinger is a character in the novel Shoeless Joe, which was the basis for the movie Field of Dreams. In the movie, the character is renamed and fictionalized.

He has been a life long student of Advaita VedantaAdvaita Vedanta is probably the best known of all Vedanta schools of Hinduism, the others being Dvaita and Vishishtadvaita''. Advaita literally means "not two", and is often called a monistic or non-dualistic system which essentially refers to the indivis HinduismThis article is about the Hindu religion; for other meanings of the word, see Hindu (disambiguation). Aum, the most sacred syllable and quintessential symbol of Hinduism, represents the first manifestation of the unmanifest Brahman. Hinduism Santana Dharm. This has been described at length by Sam P. Ranchan in his book An Adventure in Vedanta: J.D. Salinger's the Glass Family (1990).

A year-long affair in 1972 with eighteen-year old aspiring writer Joyce MaynardJoyce Maynard (born 1953) is a writer who became famous for her relationship with J. She was a student in the first coeducational class at Phillips Exeter Academy, and wrote regularly for Seventeen magazine. She entered Yale University in 1971 and sent a also became the source of controversy when she put his letters to her up for auction.

In 2000, his daughter, Margaret Salinger, by his second wife Claire Douglas, published "Dream Catcher: A Memoir." In her "tell-all" book, Ms. Salinger stated that her father drank his own urine, spoke in tongues, rarely had sex with her mother, keeping her "a virtual prisoner" and refusing to allow her to see friends or relatives.

In 2002, more than 80 letters from writers, critics and fans to Mr. Salinger were published in the book Letters to J. D. Salinger, edited by Chris Kubica .

Salinger is the father of actor Matt SalingerMatt Salinger is a B-list actor who starred in the infamous 1990 film " Captain America," based on the Marvel Comics character. Matt's father is famous author J..