J.D. Salinger

Author profile

born

January 01, 1919 in Manhattan, New York, The United States

died

January 27, 2010

gender

male

genre

Literature & Fiction, Short Stories

influences

Sherwood Anderson, Anton Chekhov, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Gustave Flauber ...more

About this author

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Jerome David 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, espe...more Jerome David 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. The novel remains widely read and controversial, 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 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 The Catcher in the Rye. Salinger died of natural causes on January 27, 2010, at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire.
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Books by J.D. Salinger

Average rating: 3.78 · 886,459 ratings · 24,346 reviews · 25 distinct works

	The Catcher in the Rye 3.74 avg rating — 758,021 ratings — published 1951 — 218 editions	My rating:
	Franny and Zooey 3.97 avg rating — 65,062 ratings — published 1962 — 68 editions	My rating:
	Nine Stories 4.19 avg rating — 43,703 ratings — published 1953 — 72 editions	My rating:
	Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction 4.10 avg rating — 16,388 ratings — published 1963 — 44 editions	My rating:
	A Perfect Day for Bananafish 4.37 avg rating — 680 ratings — published 1948 — 4 editions	My rating:
	جنگل واژگون by J.D. Salinger, بابک تبرایی (Translator), سحر ساعی (Translator) 3.57 avg rating — 605 ratings — published 1955	My rating:
	Hapworth 16, 1924 3.71 avg rating — 252 ratings — published 1965 — 2 editions	My rating:
	22 Stories 4.33 avg rating — 201 ratings — published 1974 — 4 editions	My rating:
	هفته ای یه بار آدمو نمی‌کشه by J.D. Salinger, امید نیک‌فرجام (Translator), لیلا نصیری‌ها (Translator) 3.46 avg rating — 217 ratings — published 2008	My rating:
	یادداشت‌های شخصیِ یک سرباز by J.D. Salinger, علی شیعه‌علی (Translator) 3.37 avg rating — 192 ratings — published 2008	My rating:

More books by J.D. Salinger…

Quotes by J.D. Salinger

“What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though.”
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

tags: authors , books , literature , reading , writing

4,963 people liked it

“I'm sick of just liking people. I wish to God I could meet somebody I could respect.”
― J.D. Salinger, Franny and Zooey

1,307 people liked it

“Don't ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
― J.D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye

tags: salinger , stories

1,260 people liked it

See all J.D. Salinger's quotes »

Polls

!!!WHO!!! is your favorite author?

J. K. Rowling

410 votes, 21.6%

None of the above
(Please comment who your favorite author is if he or she isn't here.)

375 votes, 19.7%

Richelle Mead

199 votes, 10.5%

Stephenie Meyer

123 votes, 6.5%

J. R. R. Tolkien

99 votes, 5.2%

Jane Austen

97 votes, 5.1%

Tamora Pierce

97 votes, 5.1%

Rick Riordan

90 votes, 4.7%

Lemony Snicket

80 votes, 4.2%

Haruki Murakami

72 votes, 3.8%

Heather Brewer

57 votes, 3.0%

Jodi Picoult

32 votes, 1.7%

Libba Bray

29 votes, 1.5%

J.D. Salinger

23 votes, 1.2%

Alyson Noel

20 votes, 1.1%

Harper Lee

19 votes, 1.0%

John Flanagan

17 votes, 0.9%

Jacqueline Wilson

14 votes, 0.7%

Michael Grant

12 votes, 0.6%

Lois Duncan

10 votes, 0.5%

Erin Hunter

9 votes, 0.5%

Rex Stout

7 votes, 0.4%

Alexander McCall Smith

7 votes, 0.4%

Margaret Haddix

4 votes, 0.2%

1902 total votes

225 comments

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