The Catcher in the Rye | J. D. Salinger Biography

Although the known facts of his life are sparse and undramatic, J. D. Salinger’s influence on American youth since the 1950s has been profound. More than 40 years after the publication of The Catcher in the Rye, students are still sharing it with each other. This is remarkable, considering that there is scant mention of Salinger in current high school anthologies of American literature.

Young people find that he speaks to them with genuine understanding, as they grapple with the contradictions and mixed messages in society today. Moreover, his insights into the human condition, as experienced by adolescents, are just as valid for adults as they, too, cope with life in all of its complexities and compromises. Robert Coles, the prominent Harvard psychiatrist and literary essayist, describes Salinger as “an original and gifted writer, a marvelous entertainer, a man free of the slogans and clichés the rest of us fall prey to.”

J. D. (Jerome David) Salinger was born in New York City in 1919 to a Jewish father and a Scotch-Irish mother. There were two children: an older sister and himself. He was asked to leave several preparatory schools because of poor grades before finally graduating from Valley Forge Military Academy in 1936. Although he did not complete a degree, he attended several colleges. These included Columbia University, where he enrolled in a writing course taught by Whit Burnett, a well-respected teacher of young writers.

Salinger was first published in Story (1940), a highly regarded periodical established by Whit Burnett. In time, his short stories were published in Collier’s, The Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, and finally, The New Yorker, the magazine for which he wrote almost exclusively after 1948.

Salinger was drafted into the military in 1942 and was transferred to the Counter-Intelligence Corps in 1943. The following year he trained in England, joined the American Army’s Fourth Division, and landed at Utah Beach on D-Day. He then served in five European campaigns as Security Agent for the Twelfth Infantry Regiment.

Upon discharge from the army, Salinger returned to live with his parents in New York City. There followed a series of short stories until the publication of The Catcher in the Rye in 1951. The book was an instant best seller. His picture appeared on the cover of Time magazine, and he became a hero of college students across the country.

But Salinger did not find fame agreeable. With the success of The Catcher in the Rye, he moved out of New York City to Tarrytown, New York, then to Westport, Connecticut, and finally, in 1953, to Cornish, New Hampshire. From this point on, he avoided the public eye whenever possible.

Notwithstanding his reclusiveness, he met British-born Clair Douglas, who became his wife in 1955. There were two children during this marriage, a girl and a boy. The marriage ended in divorce in 1967.

Salinger’s output, following the success of The Catcher in the Rye, has been modest. There have been no additional novels published, only short stories. After Nine Stories (1953), his next book, Franny and Zooey, did not come out until 1961. This work consists of two lengthy short stories which are related and interdependent, concerning a crisis in the life of the youngest member of the fictional Glass family, Franny.

In 1963, Salinger published another Glass family story sequence, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. Both stories center on the life and tragic death of Seymour Glass, as narrated by his brother Buddy Glass, who is frequently identified as Salinger’s alter-ego.

Careful readers of Salinger’s work will notice the influence of his interest in Zen Buddhism and Eastern religious literature in general. More and more, he came to view life as a religious quest for meaning. He felt that logic and intellectual discussion cannot lead to truth. Truth, according to Salinger, can be found only in the daily experience of life itself. The influence of Zen Buddhism and Eastern religions is particularly evident in his works after 1951.

While Salinger’s fictional characters have been tirelessly analyzed and discussed, the author himself has continued to remain a mystery. Since the publication of The Catcher in the Rye, he has avoided contact with the public, aggressively blocking attempts by those wishing to pry into his personal life. In 1987 he even went to court to prevent the publication of an unauthorized biography by Ian Hamilton. In his suit, he argued copyright infringement by Hamilton for quoting from Salinger’s private letters. In 1988, however, a revised version of the work was published, entitled In Search of J. D. Salinger.

As a result of his passion for privacy, Salinger has steadfastly refused to reveal details about his personal life. Many critics feel, however, that, in his fiction, he draws heavily on his own experiences, thus revealing more about himself than he may intend.

While Salinger’s writing is more substantial than the casual reader may observe, his appeal to both young people and adults remains strong. It is these characteristics—substance and popularity—which suggest that Salinger, indeed, may be an enduring figure in American literature.