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J.D. Salinger: A Life
One of the most popular and mysterious figures in American literary history, author of the classic Catcher in the Rye, J. D. Salinger eluded fans and journalists for most of his life. Now comes a new biography that Peter Ackroyd in The Times of London calls “energetic and magnificently researched”—a book from which “a true picture of Salinger emerges.” Filled with new information and revelations—garnered from countless interviews, letters, and public records—J. D. Salinger presents an extraordinary life that spanned nearly the entire twentieth century.
Kenneth Slawenski explores Salinger’s privileged youth, long obscured by misrepresentation and rumor, revealing the brilliant, sarcastic, vulnerable son of a disapproving father and doting mother and his entrance into a social world where Gloria Vanderbilt dismissively referred to him as “a Jewish boy from New York.” Here too are accounts of Salinger’s first broken heart—Eugene O’Neill’s daughter, Oona, left him for the much older Charlie Chaplin—and the devastating World War II service (“a living hell”) of which he never spoke and which haunted him forever.
J. D. Salinger features all the dazzle of this author’s early writing successes, his dramatic encounters with luminaries from Ernest Hemingway to Laurence Olivier to Elia Kazan, his surprising office intrigues with famous New Yorker editors and writers, and the stunning triumph of The Catcher in the Rye, which would both make him world-famous and hasten his retreat into the hills of New Hampshire.
Whether it’s revealing the facts of his hasty, short-lived first marriage or his lifelong commitment to Eastern religion, which would dictate his attitudes toward sex, nutrition, solitude, and creativity, J. D. Salinger is this unique author’s unforgettable story in full—one that no lover of literature can afford to miss.
Kenneth Slawenski explores Salinger’s privileged youth, long obscured by misrepresentation and rumor, revealing the brilliant, sarcastic, vulnerable son of a disapproving father and doting mother and his entrance into a social world where Gloria Vanderbilt dismissively referred to him as “a Jewish boy from New York.” Here too are accounts of Salinger’s first broken heart—Eugene O’Neill’s daughter, Oona, left him for the much older Charlie Chaplin—and the devastating World War II service (“a living hell”) of which he never spoke and which haunted him forever.
J. D. Salinger features all the dazzle of this author’s early writing successes, his dramatic encounters with luminaries from Ernest Hemingway to Laurence Olivier to Elia Kazan, his surprising office intrigues with famous New Yorker editors and writers, and the stunning triumph of The Catcher in the Rye, which would both make him world-famous and hasten his retreat into the hills of New Hampshire.
Whether it’s revealing the facts of his hasty, short-lived first marriage or his lifelong commitment to Eastern religion, which would dictate his attitudes toward sex, nutrition, solitude, and creativity, J. D. Salinger is this unique author’s unforgettable story in full—one that no lover of literature can afford to miss.
450 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 2010
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January 3, 2024
He grew up as a rich entitled New York boy who failed at various schools and colleges and it being 1942 he gets drafted and assumes, why not, he will be an officer but he never was. But his classy upbringing gave him fluency in German and French and he became very useful to the US Army.
Meanwhile at age 20 he had decided he would be a writer, beginning with short stories about rich privileged young New Yorkers. The magazines do not roll out any red carpets but he gets to slot one in here and there.
Life in the army was 2 years training in the USA, not so bad, then WHAM off to England and the hell on earth that was D-Day. He was in a unit which was at the sharpest point of the sharp end of the invasion. It began with 3000 soldiers; in one month two thousand of them were dead. Salinger was lucky. The only damage he got was a broken nose and PTSD which wasn’t considered to be a thing back then.
In the middle of the hell on earth, with body parts to the left and right, he would find a foxhole or an uncollapsed shack and write more short stories about effete young New Yorkers, and continue a surreal correspondence with his agent about whether Mademoiselle magazine would accept his latest one.
After the shooting stopped he thought he would be going home but no, now they had the job of liberating concentration camps, so he got re-traumatised.
In his teens he had stayed in Vienna with a family his father knew and had a chaste romance with the daughter. He took some leave and went to find them again, to see how they were, but he didn’t find them, they were all dead.
Out of the blue he married a French woman named Sylvia and was living with her in Germany. They had a Skoda and a black schnauzer named Benny. He never gave anyone any information about Sylvia, his friends got the idea she was maybe an osteopath, or a psychologist. Actually she was an ophthalmologist who spoke four languages, and she was German.
The problem was that US soldiers were forbidden to marry Germans, so JD got her a fake passport.
He informed his family he wasn’t coming home; they were shocked and horrified. He was discharged from the army and transferred to the Defence Department. He now became JD Salinger: Nazi hunter. Also JD Salinger: Rescuer of Orphans.
Finally in April 46 the happy couple took a boat to New York. Immediately his mother and his new bride began World War Three and by July Sylvia was on a boat back to Europe.
He was finally getting somewhere with the stories and by 1948 he was HOT. Incandescent, you might say. The New Yorker gave him an annual contract (guessed to be $30,000 but this sounds crazily high to me) to be the first magazine to receive any new stories.
About half of the first half of this book is a catalogue of which stories got rejected or accepted by which magazines and that is not remotely interesting. After Catcher in the Rye exploded (and reached the dizzying heights of No 4 on the bestseller list) the story becomes an equally dull list of tiffs and quarrels and snippy telephone calls with a parade of editors and publishers.
If you skip that stuff this is a very nice account of a guy whose measurable life stopped in 1965 while he had another half century to go (he died in 2010). 1965 was the year of the last Salinger story.
JDS might have been a well-heeled middleclass sophisticate seen at the nicest places where well-fed faces all stop and stare but he was in fact on a religious quest because he was a spiritual person. In 1952 he found what he was after : Vedantic philosophy as expounded in a book called The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
and he wanted everyone to read this, come on, only one thousand pages of dense Hindu-Buddhist fusion.
He got married again to a very young woman and at this point he decided to drop out and buy a fixer-upper in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire - there were no mod cons, there weren’t even any old cons, no running water, no phone, nearest hospital 20 miles of bad roads away. He grew organic vegetables and meditated, very solitary. He was ahead of the curve. He gradually fixed up the barn and put up a fence. Keep Out. He built a shack aka bunker aka hermitage away from the barn/house and would retire there every day for 12 hours writing the Glass family stories.
He gradually assumed the shape of a guru himself in the minds of Young America, these were kids who in six or seven years would be at Woodstock. Photographers and reporters came around and he hated every single one of them.
After 1965 there were no more stories and no more nothing. No photos, no interviews. This book takes 350 pages to move the story to 1965, then another 40 pages for the next 45 years, because in that almost half century there were only three known facts relating to JD Salinger.
One conclusion the author reaches is that JD did indeed continue writing every day for the last 45 years but his writing became a form of prayer, a religious exercise, and merged, as it were, so completely with JD’s personality that it became far too personal to conceive of publishing, that publishing became the equivalent of assault.
A fascinating American character and phenomenon. This is an excellent book if you skip the boring bits.
Meanwhile at age 20 he had decided he would be a writer, beginning with short stories about rich privileged young New Yorkers. The magazines do not roll out any red carpets but he gets to slot one in here and there.
Life in the army was 2 years training in the USA, not so bad, then WHAM off to England and the hell on earth that was D-Day. He was in a unit which was at the sharpest point of the sharp end of the invasion. It began with 3000 soldiers; in one month two thousand of them were dead. Salinger was lucky. The only damage he got was a broken nose and PTSD which wasn’t considered to be a thing back then.
In the middle of the hell on earth, with body parts to the left and right, he would find a foxhole or an uncollapsed shack and write more short stories about effete young New Yorkers, and continue a surreal correspondence with his agent about whether Mademoiselle magazine would accept his latest one.
After the shooting stopped he thought he would be going home but no, now they had the job of liberating concentration camps, so he got re-traumatised.
In his teens he had stayed in Vienna with a family his father knew and had a chaste romance with the daughter. He took some leave and went to find them again, to see how they were, but he didn’t find them, they were all dead.
Out of the blue he married a French woman named Sylvia and was living with her in Germany. They had a Skoda and a black schnauzer named Benny. He never gave anyone any information about Sylvia, his friends got the idea she was maybe an osteopath, or a psychologist. Actually she was an ophthalmologist who spoke four languages, and she was German.
The problem was that US soldiers were forbidden to marry Germans, so JD got her a fake passport.
He informed his family he wasn’t coming home; they were shocked and horrified. He was discharged from the army and transferred to the Defence Department. He now became JD Salinger: Nazi hunter. Also JD Salinger: Rescuer of Orphans.
Finally in April 46 the happy couple took a boat to New York. Immediately his mother and his new bride began World War Three and by July Sylvia was on a boat back to Europe.
He was finally getting somewhere with the stories and by 1948 he was HOT. Incandescent, you might say. The New Yorker gave him an annual contract (guessed to be $30,000 but this sounds crazily high to me) to be the first magazine to receive any new stories.
About half of the first half of this book is a catalogue of which stories got rejected or accepted by which magazines and that is not remotely interesting. After Catcher in the Rye exploded (and reached the dizzying heights of No 4 on the bestseller list) the story becomes an equally dull list of tiffs and quarrels and snippy telephone calls with a parade of editors and publishers.
If you skip that stuff this is a very nice account of a guy whose measurable life stopped in 1965 while he had another half century to go (he died in 2010). 1965 was the year of the last Salinger story.
JDS might have been a well-heeled middleclass sophisticate seen at the nicest places where well-fed faces all stop and stare but he was in fact on a religious quest because he was a spiritual person. In 1952 he found what he was after : Vedantic philosophy as expounded in a book called The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
and he wanted everyone to read this, come on, only one thousand pages of dense Hindu-Buddhist fusion.
He got married again to a very young woman and at this point he decided to drop out and buy a fixer-upper in the middle of nowhere, New Hampshire - there were no mod cons, there weren’t even any old cons, no running water, no phone, nearest hospital 20 miles of bad roads away. He grew organic vegetables and meditated, very solitary. He was ahead of the curve. He gradually fixed up the barn and put up a fence. Keep Out. He built a shack aka bunker aka hermitage away from the barn/house and would retire there every day for 12 hours writing the Glass family stories.
He gradually assumed the shape of a guru himself in the minds of Young America, these were kids who in six or seven years would be at Woodstock. Photographers and reporters came around and he hated every single one of them.
After 1965 there were no more stories and no more nothing. No photos, no interviews. This book takes 350 pages to move the story to 1965, then another 40 pages for the next 45 years, because in that almost half century there were only three known facts relating to JD Salinger.
One conclusion the author reaches is that JD did indeed continue writing every day for the last 45 years but his writing became a form of prayer, a religious exercise, and merged, as it were, so completely with JD’s personality that it became far too personal to conceive of publishing, that publishing became the equivalent of assault.
A fascinating American character and phenomenon. This is an excellent book if you skip the boring bits.
March 4, 2011
I didn't have the heart to give it one star; but had I the gumption, I would have. For a moment, I'll set aside the irony that a Salingerphile who goes to great lengths to assert the author's privacy-obsession wrote a biography about him, and focus on why Random House gave a book deal to a guy who simply operates a website about Salinger. Perhaps they are finally operating under the concept of their namesake: random.
Not that I think all scholars and biographers need to be professors or writers themselves, but seriously, Slawenski operates a corny looking fansite called DeadCaulfields (of all things) and doesn't have any other noteworthy criteria met to suggest he is the authority on the subject.
The writing makes me feel like I am in a History class with an octogenarian professor lecturing through cotton balls. It's dry and painfully tedious. I did learn a bit about Salinger, who is certainly one of my favorite authors. What I garnered most from this book was Salinger's publication history and the plot summaries (analyses, blah) of unpublished works.
What bothers me are the long winded presumptuous passages; for instance, we don't have a lot of information that describes Salinger's role in WWII, so Slawenski goes into a hefty diatribe with evidence from neighboring sources that "may" have been close to Salinger in battles to suggest what the writer himself was going through. Slawenski takes so many liberties with describing Salinger's place in the war that I forgot I was reading a bio of an author rather than a war account.
Aside from that, while Slawenski does provide some insights into analyzing Salinger's literature, I can't align myself with a lot of what Slawenski suggests. There are some points of his analyses where I thought he was so off, that I stopped reading to complain about it to random local coffeeshop denizens who had the misfortune of sitting near me.
Poor J.D., even one of his most obsessive fans can't respect his anonymity. But Hell, what am I saying? Bring on the posthumous collections!
Not that I think all scholars and biographers need to be professors or writers themselves, but seriously, Slawenski operates a corny looking fansite called DeadCaulfields (of all things) and doesn't have any other noteworthy criteria met to suggest he is the authority on the subject.
The writing makes me feel like I am in a History class with an octogenarian professor lecturing through cotton balls. It's dry and painfully tedious. I did learn a bit about Salinger, who is certainly one of my favorite authors. What I garnered most from this book was Salinger's publication history and the plot summaries (analyses, blah) of unpublished works.
What bothers me are the long winded presumptuous passages; for instance, we don't have a lot of information that describes Salinger's role in WWII, so Slawenski goes into a hefty diatribe with evidence from neighboring sources that "may" have been close to Salinger in battles to suggest what the writer himself was going through. Slawenski takes so many liberties with describing Salinger's place in the war that I forgot I was reading a bio of an author rather than a war account.
Aside from that, while Slawenski does provide some insights into analyzing Salinger's literature, I can't align myself with a lot of what Slawenski suggests. There are some points of his analyses where I thought he was so off, that I stopped reading to complain about it to random local coffeeshop denizens who had the misfortune of sitting near me.
Poor J.D., even one of his most obsessive fans can't respect his anonymity. But Hell, what am I saying? Bring on the posthumous collections!
October 16, 2011
J. D. SALINGER by Kenneth Slawenski
I grew very impatient with this biography of the famously reclusive Salinger. First, it is nearly a hagiography, being way too worshipful of its subject. Was Salinger really “a prophet?” Too often Slawenski is guilty of embarrassing hyperbole. For instance, in recounting Salinger’s re-design of the cover of “Catcher in the Rye,” opting for the austere lettering against a red background, he says, “To this day, Salinger’s design arguably remains the most beloved and cherished book presentation in American literary history. For all of its starkness and simplicity, the sight of no other book brings on such a rush of memories or causes so many hearts to skip a beat as does the Bantam edition of ‘Catcher in the Rye’.” Seriously? In all of American literary history? Even with the hedge of saying “arguably” this is gross overstatement. It reads like a high school crush love letter.
The opening sections of the book, including Salinger’s years overseas during WWII, are some of the best in the book. He goes into depth about this formative part of the author’s life, and the revelations are interesting and germane. The writing years are covered, lovingly, but I could have done without a reiteration of the plot of every short story. I know this was an attempt to make it a “critical biography,” but it was rather like listening to someone tell you the plot of a movie they had just seen, and a movie you’ve seen already yourself.
Furthermore, readers looking for a little discussion about the years of silence (and I admit it is partially what I wanted to learn from the book—what was really going on inside that lonely enclave in Cornish, New Hampshire?) will be sorely disappointed. From 1965, the last year Salinger let anything he wrote appear in print, until his death in 2010, Slawenski wraps up in fewer than 50 pages. My wife suggested that perhaps he had the first part of the book written and polished years ago and upon his death rushed through a gloss of the final decades to make the publication of the biography timely.
Overall, though much of the book is fascinating, Slawinsky’s case for Salinger as one of the literary gods of the 20th century, if not Zeus himself, is unconvincing and hurt by too many weak overstatements.
I grew very impatient with this biography of the famously reclusive Salinger. First, it is nearly a hagiography, being way too worshipful of its subject. Was Salinger really “a prophet?” Too often Slawenski is guilty of embarrassing hyperbole. For instance, in recounting Salinger’s re-design of the cover of “Catcher in the Rye,” opting for the austere lettering against a red background, he says, “To this day, Salinger’s design arguably remains the most beloved and cherished book presentation in American literary history. For all of its starkness and simplicity, the sight of no other book brings on such a rush of memories or causes so many hearts to skip a beat as does the Bantam edition of ‘Catcher in the Rye’.” Seriously? In all of American literary history? Even with the hedge of saying “arguably” this is gross overstatement. It reads like a high school crush love letter.
The opening sections of the book, including Salinger’s years overseas during WWII, are some of the best in the book. He goes into depth about this formative part of the author’s life, and the revelations are interesting and germane. The writing years are covered, lovingly, but I could have done without a reiteration of the plot of every short story. I know this was an attempt to make it a “critical biography,” but it was rather like listening to someone tell you the plot of a movie they had just seen, and a movie you’ve seen already yourself.
Furthermore, readers looking for a little discussion about the years of silence (and I admit it is partially what I wanted to learn from the book—what was really going on inside that lonely enclave in Cornish, New Hampshire?) will be sorely disappointed. From 1965, the last year Salinger let anything he wrote appear in print, until his death in 2010, Slawenski wraps up in fewer than 50 pages. My wife suggested that perhaps he had the first part of the book written and polished years ago and upon his death rushed through a gloss of the final decades to make the publication of the biography timely.
Overall, though much of the book is fascinating, Slawinsky’s case for Salinger as one of the literary gods of the 20th century, if not Zeus himself, is unconvincing and hurt by too many weak overstatements.
November 10, 2011
If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I bought the book and how long I took to read it and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. In the first place, that stuff bores me, and in the second place, the author would have about two hemorrhages if I told anything pretty personal about him.
I had no idea that old Jerome was there at D-Day AND the Battle of the Bulge. I suppose that explains a lot to those of you who think those things are important.
This was my first e-book. If you must know, the experience wasn't as crappy as I thought it would be.
J.D. is my favorite author of all time. Just read the first of "Nine Stories." Or don't.
I had no idea that old Jerome was there at D-Day AND the Battle of the Bulge. I suppose that explains a lot to those of you who think those things are important.
This was my first e-book. If you must know, the experience wasn't as crappy as I thought it would be.
J.D. is my favorite author of all time. Just read the first of "Nine Stories." Or don't.
February 2, 2025
Kenneth Slawenski tarafından yazılan resmi olmayan (ailenin onaylamadığı ve yazarın varsa özel arşivine erişilmeden hazırlanmış) biyografi sevdiğim şekilde yazarın hayatı ile kaleme aldığı eserleri paralel anlatan, Salinger'ın başına gelenlerin hikayelerine nasıl yansıdığını veren severek okuduğum bir metin oldu. Tek eksiği içinde resim olmaması. Mahremiyetine aşırı derecede özen gösteren, biyografilerden nefret eden, hakkında yazılmış kitapların yayımlanmasını durdurmak için dava bile açan J.D. Salinger ya da ailesinin buna onay vereceğini düşünmek saflık olurdu tabii. İçinde kitapların incelemesi de yapılmış. Sürprizbozanlardan kaçınmak istiyorsanız dikkat edin. Biyografinin çevirisi iyi değil. Anlaşılması zor ve yapay duran çok cümle var. Tekrar gözden geçirilmeli.
April 1, 2016
The material on Salinger's war experiences is the most interesting, but I don't recommend this biography.
I think Slawenski's approach to Salinger is for the most part deferential. Yet he doesn't deal in a straighforward way with the seeming contradiction of his writing this piece: that no matter how deferential one could be, Salinger disapproved of any biographer writing about him and was openly hostile toward those who wanted to write about him in newspapers, magazines, and elsewhere.
Slawenski has long kept a blog about Salinger, yet if he has learned anything about Salinger's writing since the author stopped publishing, you won't find it in this biography. I must admit, I bought this book in the hope of learning a little bit about the author's work over the last 45+ plus years. I was pretty disappointed not to learn much of anything about it.
I think Slawenski's approach to Salinger is for the most part deferential. Yet he doesn't deal in a straighforward way with the seeming contradiction of his writing this piece: that no matter how deferential one could be, Salinger disapproved of any biographer writing about him and was openly hostile toward those who wanted to write about him in newspapers, magazines, and elsewhere.
Slawenski has long kept a blog about Salinger, yet if he has learned anything about Salinger's writing since the author stopped publishing, you won't find it in this biography. I must admit, I bought this book in the hope of learning a little bit about the author's work over the last 45+ plus years. I was pretty disappointed not to learn much of anything about it.
July 17, 2012
Admirable scholarship. This may turn out to be THE definitive volume on the life and works of J.D. Salinger. The level of detail is only suitable for serious fans. Casual readers will not stick it. Had I tried to read it in print, I doubt I would have finished it.
From one hermit to another, J.D., I forgive you for going into seclusion and refusing to produce more work for publication. I understand now what you went through, and I would have done the same.
From one hermit to another, J.D., I forgive you for going into seclusion and refusing to produce more work for publication. I understand now what you went through, and I would have done the same.
September 26, 2016
Where to begin. (I am never at a loss for words but in this second, I am). Hm.
Because I have been captivated by Jerome David Salinger my whole life, of course, finding him during my own adolescence, reading this book was akin to getting my hands on the psychological crown jewels of a mentor of mine I never met and only got to know through his art. It seems to me too, he would hate this book if he were alive, in fact, if he were alive, he would probably never have let it go to the presses, filing a lawsuit to stop it. He just dictated the lives of the Glass Family and it is the Glass Family, all his characters, he leaves to speak to us, not the paparazzi that caught him living a quiet normal life in Cornish, NH. "Know me, know my books" he would say, then "leave me the hell alone".
I was afraid reading this book would somehow diminish the myth of him I created in my head (myths created along with thousands of others) but all it did was increase my admiration and respect for him beyond bounds but not because of him as a writer, but because of the incomprehensible experiences he literally just barely survived in WWII. Horrible experiences of war, some of the worst in history and not only was he at Normandy, but he was trained as a counter intelligence expert, and he was in charge of his own troops. Unbelievable levels of stress. I agree with Slawenski's analysis that anyone going through this would have shut down to get through it, and the idea that Salinger stayed "shut-down" when he came back. Call it severe PTSD. Slawenski provides raw gut-wrenching details of what this man went through and since most of his division was killed, it is even more astounding he survived at all. Regardless of the books (!!!!), I was impressed simply by what he endured. War is hell, and the suffering doesn't stop when you get home.
Fighting and surviving WWII then served to help him survive another enemy onslaught when he returned--editors. Another name for this book might be "Editors Are Hell", "How Editor's Can Ruin Your Life", "Ambulance-Chasing Lawyers and Editors: An Analysis".
J.D. Salinger would DEFINITELY be an Indie Author if it was now! My GOD. What hell they put him through--petty, conniving, greedy, childish--and at The New Yorker no less. Since I have experienced this my whole rather puny writing career (in comparison), I found what he went through with his editors almost comforting. "Oh, it's NOT me. They're all thieving charlatans!" (Even as I type this, a few weeks ago I heard back from an editor of a fairly big-britches magazine that she wasn't interested in my pitch but today, funny, there's the story I pitched by one of their staff writers. Let's just call it a coincidence, right?) Ducking editors. (And I am pitching no more. Forget it).
On a side note, Slawenski describes a scene where James Thurber and Salinger are in the offices of the New Yorker. The New Yorker is under-going some major editorial management changes, apparently creating great anxiety in Thurber. Salinger does not sympathize with Thurber and Thurber lunges for him, apparently with so much "passion" Thurber had to be pulled off Salinger. It was amazing to read about two of my favorite "mentor" authors going at it in the offices of the New Yorker.
Like so many great authors, Salinger was compelled to write. He could not NOT write and this is its own kind of hell as I kind of understand myself (please people, buy my books, she said shamelessly, because this obsession has its costs, no, write it with a capital "C"-Costs). He was so obsessed with his characters, he sometimes neglected the real human beings in his life, like his wives. He even admitted his characters were more alive to him than real people. (Uh oh). He was a bunker bound writer, literally in WWII, and he created another one of sorts for himself when he got back--and he stayed in it.
Salinger's writings have been called self-indulgent, his therapy, and with all he went through, he can be 'sensed' in so many aspects of his novels and short stories. Salinger was definitely a spiritualist--he viewed living, being alive, as a spiritual, even mystical experience (and who wouldn't after getting through WWII on the front lines!). Those in his life that were not so inclined frustrated and sometimes angered him. (I get this too).
The one place I felt this book got bogged down was Slawenski's somewhat tiresome recaps of Salinger's stories and Slawenski's psychoanalysis of Salinger therein. I wondered what Salinger would have thought of this. I was surprised Slawenski would even do this because no two people experience art in the same way, especially the art of Salinger, so all I took it as was Slawenski's psychological interpretation of the stories because I found myself disagreeing with his take more than a few times. I also thought he repeated his points over and over. Still, this is man who was, I guess we could say, obsessed with Salinger, enamored, passionate, you can tell, so in these sections of the book, I allowed Slawenksi his own indulgences. Slawenski is also a skilled writer in his own right. (Wonder if now he is writing his own novel? I'll definitely read it).
This biography has now given me peace because my whole reading life, I had this sense J.D. Salinger was a tortured soul and now I know why: from the hell of WWII, the betrayal of nearly every editor he dared to trust, the crude greed of the media...all trying to get to the man when I feel like what he was telling the world the entire time was everything you needed to know about me is right in front of you, in the form of Holden, Seymour, Buddy, Franny, Zooey, and Phoebe. Just read and for the last time, get the hell off my property!
Because I have been captivated by Jerome David Salinger my whole life, of course, finding him during my own adolescence, reading this book was akin to getting my hands on the psychological crown jewels of a mentor of mine I never met and only got to know through his art. It seems to me too, he would hate this book if he were alive, in fact, if he were alive, he would probably never have let it go to the presses, filing a lawsuit to stop it. He just dictated the lives of the Glass Family and it is the Glass Family, all his characters, he leaves to speak to us, not the paparazzi that caught him living a quiet normal life in Cornish, NH. "Know me, know my books" he would say, then "leave me the hell alone".
I was afraid reading this book would somehow diminish the myth of him I created in my head (myths created along with thousands of others) but all it did was increase my admiration and respect for him beyond bounds but not because of him as a writer, but because of the incomprehensible experiences he literally just barely survived in WWII. Horrible experiences of war, some of the worst in history and not only was he at Normandy, but he was trained as a counter intelligence expert, and he was in charge of his own troops. Unbelievable levels of stress. I agree with Slawenski's analysis that anyone going through this would have shut down to get through it, and the idea that Salinger stayed "shut-down" when he came back. Call it severe PTSD. Slawenski provides raw gut-wrenching details of what this man went through and since most of his division was killed, it is even more astounding he survived at all. Regardless of the books (!!!!), I was impressed simply by what he endured. War is hell, and the suffering doesn't stop when you get home.
Fighting and surviving WWII then served to help him survive another enemy onslaught when he returned--editors. Another name for this book might be "Editors Are Hell", "How Editor's Can Ruin Your Life", "Ambulance-Chasing Lawyers and Editors: An Analysis".
J.D. Salinger would DEFINITELY be an Indie Author if it was now! My GOD. What hell they put him through--petty, conniving, greedy, childish--and at The New Yorker no less. Since I have experienced this my whole rather puny writing career (in comparison), I found what he went through with his editors almost comforting. "Oh, it's NOT me. They're all thieving charlatans!" (Even as I type this, a few weeks ago I heard back from an editor of a fairly big-britches magazine that she wasn't interested in my pitch but today, funny, there's the story I pitched by one of their staff writers. Let's just call it a coincidence, right?) Ducking editors. (And I am pitching no more. Forget it).
On a side note, Slawenski describes a scene where James Thurber and Salinger are in the offices of the New Yorker. The New Yorker is under-going some major editorial management changes, apparently creating great anxiety in Thurber. Salinger does not sympathize with Thurber and Thurber lunges for him, apparently with so much "passion" Thurber had to be pulled off Salinger. It was amazing to read about two of my favorite "mentor" authors going at it in the offices of the New Yorker.
Like so many great authors, Salinger was compelled to write. He could not NOT write and this is its own kind of hell as I kind of understand myself (please people, buy my books, she said shamelessly, because this obsession has its costs, no, write it with a capital "C"-Costs). He was so obsessed with his characters, he sometimes neglected the real human beings in his life, like his wives. He even admitted his characters were more alive to him than real people. (Uh oh). He was a bunker bound writer, literally in WWII, and he created another one of sorts for himself when he got back--and he stayed in it.
Salinger's writings have been called self-indulgent, his therapy, and with all he went through, he can be 'sensed' in so many aspects of his novels and short stories. Salinger was definitely a spiritualist--he viewed living, being alive, as a spiritual, even mystical experience (and who wouldn't after getting through WWII on the front lines!). Those in his life that were not so inclined frustrated and sometimes angered him. (I get this too).
The one place I felt this book got bogged down was Slawenski's somewhat tiresome recaps of Salinger's stories and Slawenski's psychoanalysis of Salinger therein. I wondered what Salinger would have thought of this. I was surprised Slawenski would even do this because no two people experience art in the same way, especially the art of Salinger, so all I took it as was Slawenski's psychological interpretation of the stories because I found myself disagreeing with his take more than a few times. I also thought he repeated his points over and over. Still, this is man who was, I guess we could say, obsessed with Salinger, enamored, passionate, you can tell, so in these sections of the book, I allowed Slawenksi his own indulgences. Slawenski is also a skilled writer in his own right. (Wonder if now he is writing his own novel? I'll definitely read it).
This biography has now given me peace because my whole reading life, I had this sense J.D. Salinger was a tortured soul and now I know why: from the hell of WWII, the betrayal of nearly every editor he dared to trust, the crude greed of the media...all trying to get to the man when I feel like what he was telling the world the entire time was everything you needed to know about me is right in front of you, in the form of Holden, Seymour, Buddy, Franny, Zooey, and Phoebe. Just read and for the last time, get the hell off my property!
February 19, 2018
It would be a better biography if the writer did not focus on the struggles between Salinger and publishers and publishing companies too much. His analyses on the works of Salinger also take more place and time in this book than the life of Salinger. Considering the personality of Salinger, it is surely understandable. Aside from that, Slawenski has great respect for the author and does not offer us cheap tricks about Salinger's life. I am glad to have found out more about his early life, years in the army, his career as a writer, his heartbreaks and disappointments. How Salinger reflects his sense of mysticism and affection for the loved ones on his works will always amaze me.
February 19, 2022
"Selindžeris yra pasakęs, kad nors gyvena šiame pasaulyje, yra ne iš šio pasaulio. Šeimą guodžia viltis, kad mirė tik jo kūnas, o siela susitiks su tais, kuriuos jis mylėjo ir tebemyli, kad ir kas jie būtų: religinės ar istorinės asmenybės, artimi bičiuliai ar jo sukurti personažai."
November 15, 2010
A deferential fan's biography, this answers any curiosity one might have about the reclusive writer's influences and motives for rejecting a public life. Salinger had no brother, no suicides in his family or intimate circle, but he did see a rough patch in WW2 including the liberation of Dachau. He was badly treated by critics and was rightly annoyed with some of his agents, editors and publishers in the 60s just as he achieved financial independence. So he rejected the literary public life, and his fanatical readers, as well as a press that was a precursor to a paparazzi age. He wrote in solitude for decades, meditated, and lived openly if quietly with his family and later a third young wife in the same small town for decades, dying at 91. Good for him.
February 23, 2022
I have just finished listening to this book in the audible version after having evidently read it about 11 years ago. Are use the word evidently with true meaning because I have no recollection of this book! I think the interesting thing about this biography which evidently was written without the author ever having any personal interaction with JD Salinger is that I found it very informative and interesting to listen to. A good part of the book is the analysis by the author of the contents of the works of JD Salinger. And it is after all his works that he left behind.
When Salinger died we were all expecting that whatever he had been writing for decades would begin to appear somehow. So far that has not happened. But this book tells quite a bit about his life before the catcher in the rye was published and is especially revealing about his life during World War II.
I did not really have any experience of JD Salinger until he disappeared into hiding. This book tells quite a bit about why that may have happened and what Salinger may have felt about his ownership of his work and his characters. I don’t really know how much of that is mere speculation and how much of it is agreed-upon generally but I found much of what I listen to in this book to be most credible. I don’t know about the sources of this author that apparently did not include Mr. Salinger himself.
——-
Count me enthralled by Salinger, probably more by his lifestyle choices than by his writing. Sure, The Catcher in the Rye is a classic, a book that caught the angst of the generation of the 1950s after the atomic bomb and during the heyday of fallout shelters and civil defense. But when Salinger made his mark and then retreated into hiding, he established a notoriety that kept his name alive for another generation.
Salinger’s career as a published author spanned 25 years. His first story was published in Story magazine in the spring of 1940. Five short stories appeared in theSaturday Evening Post in 1944 and 1945. His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965. Thirty-eight stories by Salinger are indexed and linked at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category... . J.D. Salinger: A Life refers to many short stories written by Salinger but never published and eventually lost.
The book relies on correspondence Salinger had with others including Ernest Hemmingway as well as other unauthorized biographies. His significant experience in World War II is extrapolated from letters, references in his published writing and assumptions that his experiences were similar to those of others who served. It portrays a severe several years in the D-Day landing, the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Nazi death camps. Evidence strongly suggests that Salinger suffered from post traumatic stress disorder at a time before much was known about this common condition.
I find these links to Salinger’s thoughts persuasive. What he had to say, he said in his writing, as limited as that is. It is said that Salinger wrote continuously once he moved into his long reclusive phase. We know so little about that phase and have no access to his writings. Several unauthorized biographies by those who knew him and who sought to know him, have not offered any certainty to our knowledge of the interior life of J.D. Salinger. His concluding contacts with the world were legal efforts to obstruct what he saw as the invasion of his privacy.
My father is currently ninety one years old, Salinger’s age when he died. Based on my experience with my father who is also a veteran of WW II, I find it easy to imagine Salinger leading a lucid life right up until the time of his death in spite of his isolation. While my father has not become a recluse like Salinger, he has always been closemouthed about his war experience. He has shut that part of his life off from examination by others.
Links to sixteen reviews of J.D. Salinger: A Life from newspapers and magazines can be found at
http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/book...
The book takes you on a guided tour through the four books that Salinger did publish: The Catcher in the Rye, Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters and Seymour – An Introduction. With plot summaries and analysis the author attempts to draw lines between Salinger’s life and his writing. I found the effort to learn from Salinger’s art about his personal life to be a legitimate and interesting approach and one that makes a lot of sense. If you believe that Salinger’s novels and short stories are autobiographical, you will accept the validity of this way of viewing Salinger’s fiction. The book is well footnoted when information is drawn from actual documents.
Salinger was anything but cooperative during most of his life as far as divulging personal and biographical information. This has forced those interested in writing about him to draw conclusions from less than ideal sources. A daughter and an ex-wife are among those who have tried to capture J.D. Salinger in words. No one so far has been up to meeting the challenge. That is, evidently, how Salinger wants it. Some of his writing from his reclusive years may yet be made public and even published. However, odds of that happening seem to be long. But some of us find enjoyment in the effort to capture this strange and mysterious man.
To me, one of the surprising claims of the book is that the magazine and newspaper writers who pursued Salinger with such determination and invaded his privacy so thoroughly actually may have forced him into the seclusion for which he is so well known. They cornered him again and again and his only recourse was to go into his home and shut and lock the door. I have sympathy with that view of the Salinger story.
With the publication of his third and fourth books, Salinger seemed to set out into an ongoing series about the Glass family. However, with the publication of Hapworth 16, 1924 in 1965, Salinger’s public output ended abruptly.
GR reviewers find Kenneth Slawenski lacking somewhat in impartiality:
Slawenski concludes somewhat heavy handed:
It is tantalizing to think that the conclusions drawn in this book are accurate. But, considering the number of assumptions that are made based on partial information, some inaccuracies must be expected and, I think, accepted. The author made an honest effort to discover the truth. Salinger was certainly not an angel and probably not a devil; he is a human with positive and negative aspects. Due to his admiration of Salinger, Slawenski leans too much in the angel direction. But knowing that about him gives us fair warning as we read this most interesting biography.
I easily give the book four stars, at least partially because I had some tears in my eyes at the end of the book. Like Slawenski I am a sucker for J.D. Salinger. And now that I have read the book, I will likely check out the website http://www.deadcaulfields.com/
When Salinger died we were all expecting that whatever he had been writing for decades would begin to appear somehow. So far that has not happened. But this book tells quite a bit about his life before the catcher in the rye was published and is especially revealing about his life during World War II.
I did not really have any experience of JD Salinger until he disappeared into hiding. This book tells quite a bit about why that may have happened and what Salinger may have felt about his ownership of his work and his characters. I don’t really know how much of that is mere speculation and how much of it is agreed-upon generally but I found much of what I listen to in this book to be most credible. I don’t know about the sources of this author that apparently did not include Mr. Salinger himself.
——-
Count me enthralled by Salinger, probably more by his lifestyle choices than by his writing. Sure, The Catcher in the Rye is a classic, a book that caught the angst of the generation of the 1950s after the atomic bomb and during the heyday of fallout shelters and civil defense. But when Salinger made his mark and then retreated into hiding, he established a notoriety that kept his name alive for another generation.
Salinger’s career as a published author spanned 25 years. His first story was published in Story magazine in the spring of 1940. Five short stories appeared in theSaturday Evening Post in 1944 and 1945. His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965. Thirty-eight stories by Salinger are indexed and linked at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category... . J.D. Salinger: A Life refers to many short stories written by Salinger but never published and eventually lost.
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. Salinger published his first stories in Story magazine which was started by Whit Burnett. 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.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._D._Sa...
The book relies on correspondence Salinger had with others including Ernest Hemmingway as well as other unauthorized biographies. His significant experience in World War II is extrapolated from letters, references in his published writing and assumptions that his experiences were similar to those of others who served. It portrays a severe several years in the D-Day landing, the Battle of the Bulge and the liberation of Nazi death camps. Evidence strongly suggests that Salinger suffered from post traumatic stress disorder at a time before much was known about this common condition.
The insight that Holden finds at the Central Park carousel is the same that finally soothed Salinger’s reaction to the war. After realizing this, they both fell silent – never to speak of it again. It is, therefore, with J.D. Salinger and the Second World War in mind that we should read Holden’s parting words in The Catcher in the Rye: “Don’t ever tell anybody anything. If you do, you start missing everybody.”
I find these links to Salinger’s thoughts persuasive. What he had to say, he said in his writing, as limited as that is. It is said that Salinger wrote continuously once he moved into his long reclusive phase. We know so little about that phase and have no access to his writings. Several unauthorized biographies by those who knew him and who sought to know him, have not offered any certainty to our knowledge of the interior life of J.D. Salinger. His concluding contacts with the world were legal efforts to obstruct what he saw as the invasion of his privacy.
My father is currently ninety one years old, Salinger’s age when he died. Based on my experience with my father who is also a veteran of WW II, I find it easy to imagine Salinger leading a lucid life right up until the time of his death in spite of his isolation. While my father has not become a recluse like Salinger, he has always been closemouthed about his war experience. He has shut that part of his life off from examination by others.
Links to sixteen reviews of J.D. Salinger: A Life from newspapers and magazines can be found at
http://www.bookmarksmagazine.com/book...
The book takes you on a guided tour through the four books that Salinger did publish: The Catcher in the Rye, Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roof Beam Carpenters and Seymour – An Introduction. With plot summaries and analysis the author attempts to draw lines between Salinger’s life and his writing. I found the effort to learn from Salinger’s art about his personal life to be a legitimate and interesting approach and one that makes a lot of sense. If you believe that Salinger’s novels and short stories are autobiographical, you will accept the validity of this way of viewing Salinger’s fiction. The book is well footnoted when information is drawn from actual documents.
Salinger was anything but cooperative during most of his life as far as divulging personal and biographical information. This has forced those interested in writing about him to draw conclusions from less than ideal sources. A daughter and an ex-wife are among those who have tried to capture J.D. Salinger in words. No one so far has been up to meeting the challenge. That is, evidently, how Salinger wants it. Some of his writing from his reclusive years may yet be made public and even published. However, odds of that happening seem to be long. But some of us find enjoyment in the effort to capture this strange and mysterious man.
To me, one of the surprising claims of the book is that the magazine and newspaper writers who pursued Salinger with such determination and invaded his privacy so thoroughly actually may have forced him into the seclusion for which he is so well known. They cornered him again and again and his only recourse was to go into his home and shut and lock the door. I have sympathy with that view of the Salinger story.
The seclusion begun by his work habits and hardened by the media had evolved into a loneliness that was locked into place by the by the fatalism he embraced.
With the publication of his third and fourth books, Salinger seemed to set out into an ongoing series about the Glass family. However, with the publication of Hapworth 16, 1924 in 1965, Salinger’s public output ended abruptly.
From 1970 onward, Salinger, with the staunch support of Dorothy Olding, dedicated himself to smothering every disclosure of personal information both past and present. But Salinger’s obsession with his privacy had the opposite effect. Rather than fading from public awareness, he became even more famous for his withdrawal. Intentionally or not, every act he employed to remove himself from the glare of public scrutiny only served to enlarge his legend.
GR reviewers find Kenneth Slawenski lacking somewhat in impartiality:
First, it is nearly a hagiography, being way too worshipful of its subject.
A deferential fan's biography…
… What goes along with that is a lack of perspective on the writer, and only so-so insight into Salinger's actual work.
It is perhaps a bit too deferential in its dealings with his personal life.
Slawenski is the ultimate devoted fan and much he has to say must be taken with that in mind.
I think Slawenski's approach to Salinger is for the most part deferential.
The attitude throughout is worshipful …
Slawenski concludes somewhat heavy handed:
By examining the life of J.D. Salinger, with all its sadness and imperfections, together with the messages delivered through his writing, we are charged with the reevaluation of our own lives, an assessment of our own connections, and the weighing of our own integrity.
It is tantalizing to think that the conclusions drawn in this book are accurate. But, considering the number of assumptions that are made based on partial information, some inaccuracies must be expected and, I think, accepted. The author made an honest effort to discover the truth. Salinger was certainly not an angel and probably not a devil; he is a human with positive and negative aspects. Due to his admiration of Salinger, Slawenski leans too much in the angel direction. But knowing that about him gives us fair warning as we read this most interesting biography.
I easily give the book four stars, at least partially because I had some tears in my eyes at the end of the book. Like Slawenski I am a sucker for J.D. Salinger. And now that I have read the book, I will likely check out the website http://www.deadcaulfields.com/
February 22, 2012
Was he a saint or a brilliant marketer? That’s the question I am left with upon reading this intriguing life of the most reclusive celebrity author of recent times.
Salinger’s output was sparse: a collection of nine short stories, his signature novel The Catcher in the Rye, two novellas combined into a full length book (Franny and Zooey), another two novellas combined (Raise High the Roof Beam and Seymour – an Introduction), and a smattering of short stories published in various “slick” magazines that he did not care about. His focus was on the characters in the fictional Caulfield and Glass families and he followed their development over a period that mirrored his life. And yet he claimed that he only wrote stories about “young people.” His work took a turn towards the religious after Catcher made him a household name. By the time he got to Zooey he was into Vedanta and Zen, and was targeting American materialism and intellectualism as the opposites of spiritualism.
Born into the privileged upper middle class society of New York, he had a relatively comfortable life until he went to war in 1944 and survived the hell of D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, the fall of Cherbourg, the Battle of the Hedgerows, Bloody Mortain and others, ending the war in Intelligence, suffering what is today known as PTSD and emboldened with the realization that his survival had a purpose: he would elevate the horrors of war into high literature.
His literary journey was no cakewalk and yet he reaped rich rewards. Salinger endured more rejection that he gained acceptance, especially in his early years. Publishers had Machiavellian holds on him and insisted on “compressing” his work to meet journalistic requirements; they also published and republished his work without his permission and took the liberty of changing the titles of his stories – dangerous ground to tread with an author whose ego was as big as Salinger’s. His response was to be difficult with publishers and publicists (Salinger only gave one public speaking engagement and quit) and others who wanted to make him famous – the net result was that his hermit status gained him more fame and fortune that he could imagine. Salinger enjoyed the enviable position of being on The New Yorker payroll on a retainer of $30K per year (in 1947 dollars) for giving that venerable magazine the first right of refusal of his stories; his output in that period:1948 – 5 stories submitted, 2 published, 1949 – 7 submitted, all rejected. Wasn’t that just the glory age of publishing, and a cushy time to be a writer?
Salinger’s Spartan and spiritual approach made him specify that his book covers only had to be in text, with no pictures (especially no author pictures!). He refused the distribution of advance review copies and decried advance publicity or promotion. He was noted for launching lawsuits against any perceived infringement of his control of his work. I wonder if J.D. Salinger would have even made the cut as a writer in the publishing universe of today in which shameless self-promotion and lots of “free content” is de rigueur.
Little is known of Salinger’s personal life, especially of the later barren years when he published nothing but continued to write copiously. He had a short-lived first marriage, a longer second one that produced children and a third late in his life. His work overpowered relationships and family time. He entertained young people from his village in New Hampshire but as the world got nosier about him, he withdrew further into his cave. His last published work, a novella, Hapworth 16, 1924, released in 1965, was a disaster – the critics marked their scorn by remaining silent, and Salinger never published anything new again until his death in 2010, aged 91.
This review is but a snapshot of the book and the interesting times through which Salinger traversed, interesting people such as Hemingway and Oona O’Neil (Eugene O’Neil’s daughter and Charlie Chaplin’s future wife) whom he engaged with, and the transformational events such as WWII that forged much of the 20th century and influenced his work. The writer of this biography, Kenneth Slawenski, tends to lionize Salinger and I wished for a more balanced view of his subject which would have still made interesting reading. Nevertheless, the book sheds much light on this reclusive writer and is a motivational read for the rest of us scribes who are toiling in the dark, thirsting for the fame and fortune that Salinger overtly scorned – or did he?
Salinger’s output was sparse: a collection of nine short stories, his signature novel The Catcher in the Rye, two novellas combined into a full length book (Franny and Zooey), another two novellas combined (Raise High the Roof Beam and Seymour – an Introduction), and a smattering of short stories published in various “slick” magazines that he did not care about. His focus was on the characters in the fictional Caulfield and Glass families and he followed their development over a period that mirrored his life. And yet he claimed that he only wrote stories about “young people.” His work took a turn towards the religious after Catcher made him a household name. By the time he got to Zooey he was into Vedanta and Zen, and was targeting American materialism and intellectualism as the opposites of spiritualism.
Born into the privileged upper middle class society of New York, he had a relatively comfortable life until he went to war in 1944 and survived the hell of D-Day, the Battle of the Bulge, the fall of Cherbourg, the Battle of the Hedgerows, Bloody Mortain and others, ending the war in Intelligence, suffering what is today known as PTSD and emboldened with the realization that his survival had a purpose: he would elevate the horrors of war into high literature.
His literary journey was no cakewalk and yet he reaped rich rewards. Salinger endured more rejection that he gained acceptance, especially in his early years. Publishers had Machiavellian holds on him and insisted on “compressing” his work to meet journalistic requirements; they also published and republished his work without his permission and took the liberty of changing the titles of his stories – dangerous ground to tread with an author whose ego was as big as Salinger’s. His response was to be difficult with publishers and publicists (Salinger only gave one public speaking engagement and quit) and others who wanted to make him famous – the net result was that his hermit status gained him more fame and fortune that he could imagine. Salinger enjoyed the enviable position of being on The New Yorker payroll on a retainer of $30K per year (in 1947 dollars) for giving that venerable magazine the first right of refusal of his stories; his output in that period:1948 – 5 stories submitted, 2 published, 1949 – 7 submitted, all rejected. Wasn’t that just the glory age of publishing, and a cushy time to be a writer?
Salinger’s Spartan and spiritual approach made him specify that his book covers only had to be in text, with no pictures (especially no author pictures!). He refused the distribution of advance review copies and decried advance publicity or promotion. He was noted for launching lawsuits against any perceived infringement of his control of his work. I wonder if J.D. Salinger would have even made the cut as a writer in the publishing universe of today in which shameless self-promotion and lots of “free content” is de rigueur.
Little is known of Salinger’s personal life, especially of the later barren years when he published nothing but continued to write copiously. He had a short-lived first marriage, a longer second one that produced children and a third late in his life. His work overpowered relationships and family time. He entertained young people from his village in New Hampshire but as the world got nosier about him, he withdrew further into his cave. His last published work, a novella, Hapworth 16, 1924, released in 1965, was a disaster – the critics marked their scorn by remaining silent, and Salinger never published anything new again until his death in 2010, aged 91.
This review is but a snapshot of the book and the interesting times through which Salinger traversed, interesting people such as Hemingway and Oona O’Neil (Eugene O’Neil’s daughter and Charlie Chaplin’s future wife) whom he engaged with, and the transformational events such as WWII that forged much of the 20th century and influenced his work. The writer of this biography, Kenneth Slawenski, tends to lionize Salinger and I wished for a more balanced view of his subject which would have still made interesting reading. Nevertheless, the book sheds much light on this reclusive writer and is a motivational read for the rest of us scribes who are toiling in the dark, thirsting for the fame and fortune that Salinger overtly scorned – or did he?
February 13, 2019
A well-rounded, respectful account of the famous short story writer (yet mainly known for his only published novel) - this biography gives a clear-eyed view of Salinger through his school years, the war, the progression of his career, his eventual distancing from the public and the world of publishing and his many battles concerning his rights to his art and every aspect of its use; for someone curious about his life, this is well worth a read. It's not without its flaws - sometimes a bit on the dull side, due to Slawenski's style of archiving information rather than telling a story, that can make parts tedious reading - or the literary analysis of Salinger's work that was interesting at best, unconvincing most of the time - and yet as a biography it's still on the whole good and engaging, because Salinger is such an interesting writer to read about even without the controversies and rumors that clung to him most of his adult life.
Review: https://curiousreaderr.wordpress.com/...
Review: https://curiousreaderr.wordpress.com/...
February 13, 2011
I have to admit right off the bat that I totally skimmed this book. J.D. Salinger was, by nature, the most private person that was ever famous and not crazy. So reading a book of this size, with this much information and opinion about his life seems to be an ironic way to salute the author of one of my all-time favorite novels. Also, I didn't like being reminded that Salinger was pretty much an ingrate over the Catcher in the Rye craze. He liked that people related to it and bought it, but he hated all the reviews and forced the publishers to take his picture off the cover, etc. He wanted to have his cake and eat it too. I'm sure that old J.D. would have rather that this memoir wasn't published, so between that and the fact that it wasn't very well-written anyway made it a pretty mediocre read for me.
May 24, 2021
Adequate biography, lacking style, but offering analysis of the works (though Philip Davis on Bernard Malamud is tops in this regard), and subject to the same lag in events that the last one or two decades of a writer's life seem to contain, only exacerbated by Salinger not publishing anything for decades. Thin on interviews compared to other biographies read lately.
December 29, 2019
..tāda diža, bet sevī noslēgta rakstnieka biogrāfiju uzrakstīt noteikti nav viegls darbs, taču šī grāmata ir izdevusies tik baudāma, ka ne atrauties no tās var, ne arī pēcāk emocionālas pacilātības iespaidā nolikt malā.
December 29, 2015
my first audio book.
since I was deeply impressed by JD SALINGER's books, then couldn't help knowing about him more. GREAT WRITER.
HE SAID WHILE BREATHING HIS LAST: HE WAS IN THIS WORLD, BUT NOT OF THIS WORLD.:(
since I was deeply impressed by JD SALINGER's books, then couldn't help knowing about him more. GREAT WRITER.
HE SAID WHILE BREATHING HIS LAST: HE WAS IN THIS WORLD, BUT NOT OF THIS WORLD.:(
June 15, 2022
3,5
jeśli nie masz pojęcia kim był i co napisał j.d. salinger ta biografia jest dla ciebie XD
analizuje wszystkie opowiadania i jedna pełna powieść (lul) przez pryzmat życia autora
od fanów i dla fanów, ale autor się z tym nie kryje więc przyjemnie się to czyta, choć miejscami fanboj mu się włącza aż zanadto, pomimo to nie da się mu się też zarzucić, że brakuje bibliografii, bo ta jest wnikliwa i ma nawet kilkadziesiąt stron
uhhh that urge to reread The Catcher in the Rye is strong
i need to fight it
jeśli nie masz pojęcia kim był i co napisał j.d. salinger ta biografia jest dla ciebie XD
analizuje wszystkie opowiadania i jedna pełna powieść (lul) przez pryzmat życia autora
od fanów i dla fanów, ale autor się z tym nie kryje więc przyjemnie się to czyta, choć miejscami fanboj mu się włącza aż zanadto, pomimo to nie da się mu się też zarzucić, że brakuje bibliografii, bo ta jest wnikliwa i ma nawet kilkadziesiąt stron
uhhh that urge to reread The Catcher in the Rye is strong
i need to fight it
January 11, 2012
I have to admit I did not know much about J.D. Salinger before reading this biography. However, I have always been intrigued by Salinger ever since I was fifteen and had read Catcher in the Rye. Slawenski remarkably salutes J.D. Salinger, whose full name is Jerome David Salinger. “It is an invitation to salute. A salute not the memory but to the essence of J.D. Salinger…”
J.D. Salinger: A Life is a thorough and well researched biography on the man and author. Being born to a middle-class Jewish family and raised in the Upper East Side of NYC, is in part, what inspired Salinger. There is a thorough accounting of his parents history, along with pictures of his home on Park Avenue, which was reportedly the basis of the Glass family home in Franny and Zooey.
Slawenski covers Salinger’s childhood, and education. It was interesting to read about Salinger’s experiences in Valley Forge Military Academy and how those experiences may have contributed to his formulation of the character of Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye. According to Slawenski, Salinger and Caulfield “shared many attributes”.
Another interesting fact is that Salinger wrote the class song of 1936 for the Valley Forge Military Academy, and through present day, the song is still in use.
Salinger lived through war time (World War II) and although he wanted to enlist in the army, he was initially rejected due to a slight heart irregularity. In 1942 some of the classifications were lessened, and he was subsequently drafted. Salinger had five battle stars along with a Presidential Unit Citation for Valor. There were many disenchanting events that Salinger witnessed while in service, a lot of which had contributed to the struggling emotions of his protagonist Holden Caulfield. “The struggle of Holden Caulfield echoed the spiritual journey of the author.”
There were so many rich points throughout this biography; Slawenski does a tremendous job in relating not only the events and ideas that inspired the author, but also gives an in depth look at some of the characters and how they related to the author and vice versa.
I was unaware of how many short stories and other writings were actually attributed to Salinger. Being from New York City myself, I found myself intrigued by the life this author lived. In his later years, he lived off his own land, grew his own vegetables organically and as much as he could tried to live a self-sufficient life. Slawenski does an exemplary job when he compares Salinger to Dickens “For all of its unconventionality, The Catcher in the Rye carries on a literary tradition begun by Charles Dickens…” “Catcher in the Rye continues an observation of mankind as seen through the lens of an adolescent…”
Slawenski spent close to eight years putting this biography together. J.D. Salinger was born on January 1, 1919 and died on January 27, 2010. His work will always be known for its value in classic literature. Aside from Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey, Salinger is known for his novellas Raise High the Roof Beam and Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction as well as Nine Stories.
This electronic galley was provided to me for free by Net Galley in exchange for my honest review.
J.D. Salinger: A Life is a thorough and well researched biography on the man and author. Being born to a middle-class Jewish family and raised in the Upper East Side of NYC, is in part, what inspired Salinger. There is a thorough accounting of his parents history, along with pictures of his home on Park Avenue, which was reportedly the basis of the Glass family home in Franny and Zooey.
Slawenski covers Salinger’s childhood, and education. It was interesting to read about Salinger’s experiences in Valley Forge Military Academy and how those experiences may have contributed to his formulation of the character of Holden Caulfield in Catcher in the Rye. According to Slawenski, Salinger and Caulfield “shared many attributes”.
Another interesting fact is that Salinger wrote the class song of 1936 for the Valley Forge Military Academy, and through present day, the song is still in use.
Salinger lived through war time (World War II) and although he wanted to enlist in the army, he was initially rejected due to a slight heart irregularity. In 1942 some of the classifications were lessened, and he was subsequently drafted. Salinger had five battle stars along with a Presidential Unit Citation for Valor. There were many disenchanting events that Salinger witnessed while in service, a lot of which had contributed to the struggling emotions of his protagonist Holden Caulfield. “The struggle of Holden Caulfield echoed the spiritual journey of the author.”
There were so many rich points throughout this biography; Slawenski does a tremendous job in relating not only the events and ideas that inspired the author, but also gives an in depth look at some of the characters and how they related to the author and vice versa.
I was unaware of how many short stories and other writings were actually attributed to Salinger. Being from New York City myself, I found myself intrigued by the life this author lived. In his later years, he lived off his own land, grew his own vegetables organically and as much as he could tried to live a self-sufficient life. Slawenski does an exemplary job when he compares Salinger to Dickens “For all of its unconventionality, The Catcher in the Rye carries on a literary tradition begun by Charles Dickens…” “Catcher in the Rye continues an observation of mankind as seen through the lens of an adolescent…”
Slawenski spent close to eight years putting this biography together. J.D. Salinger was born on January 1, 1919 and died on January 27, 2010. His work will always be known for its value in classic literature. Aside from Catcher in the Rye and Franny and Zooey, Salinger is known for his novellas Raise High the Roof Beam and Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction as well as Nine Stories.
This electronic galley was provided to me for free by Net Galley in exchange for my honest review.
January 3, 2015
Reading Salinger’s biography was a rewarding experience coinciding with my second-time reading of his published works. It helped me follow the roots of the inward insights in his works and better understand his reclusive nature.
Besides the religious grounds for his isolation I realized how much he identified himself with his characters. He created his own literary world and he probably did not need/accept the real one. Even before I read he wanted his daughter to be named Phoebe I knew that would be quite natural (but his wife rejected the idea). Towards the end of "Seymour: An Introduction" all three personalities merged in my mind: Jerome, Buddy and Seymour.
I can’t deny I was tired at the end of reading Salinger’s biography and his works. I even felt melancholic and estranged just like him… Obviously I totally immersed in his world… I also tend to dislike the phony aspects of public life, the glamour of fame and the shallow and transient nature of material wealth (but would not prefer to live in such isolation and attitude of disapproval). I admired Salinger’s courage to reject President Kennedy’s invitation to an official reception (he did not dislike the Kennedy family, he just did not want to feel embarrassed in a situation/atmosphere so contrary to his way of life). But I wondered if he really needed to close almost all doors (of friendship) behind him following some disappointments.
I never knew Salinger took part in decisive battles during the Second World War (D-Day, the Battle of Hürtgen Forest). Can anyone fully overcome this nightmare (described by Slawenski at length), especially such a sensitive person seeking answers to existential questions since early teenage years? Hence my favourite short story "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor".
The post-war years were a period of fruitful writing (the Glass family is so dear to me!) and publishing but also a time of constant “spirit-ego” fight. Zen-Buddhism entered Salinger's life and even though his characters’ salvation was often found in sincere human relations (Holden-Phoebe, Esme-Sergeant X, Boo Boo - Lionel, Franny – Zooey, etc.) he could not help detachment overwhelm him... The book reveals the constant "struggles" with publishers that accompany every writer's career but in Salinger's case they were more severe.
As all of Salinger’s fans I also wonder whether and what he was writing during his 40-year isolation. However, even only his published works are more than enough for me to consider him a great Master! (though he considered writing a meditation, a religion, following of God's will... not an aim for gaining rewards)
I felt Kenneth Slawenski is neither idolizing nor criticizing Salinger but rather trying to show maximum understanding. He offers an objective and sympathetic account of Salinger’s personality and a comprehensive interpretation of all of his known works (he even retells the stories - thus I realized, for example, that Ramona was 11 years old, not 5-6 as I've always thought). Overall, reading this book is a good way to maintain neutrality since reading Salinger's works almost makes me worship him...
Besides the religious grounds for his isolation I realized how much he identified himself with his characters. He created his own literary world and he probably did not need/accept the real one. Even before I read he wanted his daughter to be named Phoebe I knew that would be quite natural (but his wife rejected the idea). Towards the end of "Seymour: An Introduction" all three personalities merged in my mind: Jerome, Buddy and Seymour.
I can’t deny I was tired at the end of reading Salinger’s biography and his works. I even felt melancholic and estranged just like him… Obviously I totally immersed in his world… I also tend to dislike the phony aspects of public life, the glamour of fame and the shallow and transient nature of material wealth (but would not prefer to live in such isolation and attitude of disapproval). I admired Salinger’s courage to reject President Kennedy’s invitation to an official reception (he did not dislike the Kennedy family, he just did not want to feel embarrassed in a situation/atmosphere so contrary to his way of life). But I wondered if he really needed to close almost all doors (of friendship) behind him following some disappointments.
I never knew Salinger took part in decisive battles during the Second World War (D-Day, the Battle of Hürtgen Forest). Can anyone fully overcome this nightmare (described by Slawenski at length), especially such a sensitive person seeking answers to existential questions since early teenage years? Hence my favourite short story "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor".
The post-war years were a period of fruitful writing (the Glass family is so dear to me!) and publishing but also a time of constant “spirit-ego” fight. Zen-Buddhism entered Salinger's life and even though his characters’ salvation was often found in sincere human relations (Holden-Phoebe, Esme-Sergeant X, Boo Boo - Lionel, Franny – Zooey, etc.) he could not help detachment overwhelm him... The book reveals the constant "struggles" with publishers that accompany every writer's career but in Salinger's case they were more severe.
As all of Salinger’s fans I also wonder whether and what he was writing during his 40-year isolation. However, even only his published works are more than enough for me to consider him a great Master! (though he considered writing a meditation, a religion, following of God's will... not an aim for gaining rewards)
I felt Kenneth Slawenski is neither idolizing nor criticizing Salinger but rather trying to show maximum understanding. He offers an objective and sympathetic account of Salinger’s personality and a comprehensive interpretation of all of his known works (he even retells the stories - thus I realized, for example, that Ramona was 11 years old, not 5-6 as I've always thought). Overall, reading this book is a good way to maintain neutrality since reading Salinger's works almost makes me worship him...
zhelf
December 31, 2016I got this book after watching a documentary on Salinger and started it on the heels of My Salinger Year. I assume the biography was neither authorized nor condoned, and from the start I can see why, on only the grounds of writing: in one paragraph is someone named Doris, who only in the next becomes JDS's sister. The author pored through Census records for his subject's ancestry in Gradgrindian Facts but then alleges, without a footnote, though at 2% he has already used seven, "Their romance was immediate and intense, and Sol was determined to marry Marie from the start," which is a broad kind of claim. At 3%, "The Salingers wanted something similar [to private but distant boarding schools common for their income bracket] for their own son but were unwilling to have him move away."
This usage irritates me: "Cadets were roused from bed at 6 A.M. to begin a day of formations, classes, speeches, and endless marching." Evidently, since the cadets did sleep, the marching wasn't endless. This is an actual error rather than style: "Taps were blown at 10 P.M. sharp." The tune is singular.
This usage irritates me: "Cadets were roused from bed at 6 A.M. to begin a day of formations, classes, speeches, and endless marching." Evidently, since the cadets did sleep, the marching wasn't endless. This is an actual error rather than style: "Taps were blown at 10 P.M. sharp." The tune is singular.
January 2, 2021
Io amo le biografie, non tanto perché mi piace impicciarmi dei fatti altrui – anzi, certe volte meno si sa meglio è – anche perché la vita di uno scrittore non è sempre eccezionale, almeno in senso lato. Ma m’interessa capire la psicologia, soprattutto l’evoluzione che ha portato alla nascita dei libri che più ho amato.
Lo consiglio? Sì. Però non vi aspettate una roba alla “Io sono vivo, voi siete morti” di Carrère (bello, bellissimo, amato alla follia, ma per altri motivi: Dick è stato un personaggio romanzesco a tutti gli effetti). Il libro di Slawenski lo consiglio per una visione completa dell’autore senza troppi slanci soggettivi. È un ottimo testo se volete ripercorrere tutta la produzione (e la vita, ovviamente) dello scrittore, con un po’ di genealogia e i dettagli di come-quando-perché ha scritto questo o quel racconto (molti, in Italia, non ci sono mai arrivati).
Ah, manco a dirlo: ho intenzione di rileggere “Il giovane Holden” al più presto, cosa che volevo già fare lo scorso anno, poi però mi sono lasciata catturare da quelle meraviglie che sono Franny e Zooey (per dire, sapevate che F & Z dovevano essere due capitoli di un’opera più ampia? Kenneth lo sa).
Lo consiglio? Sì. Però non vi aspettate una roba alla “Io sono vivo, voi siete morti” di Carrère (bello, bellissimo, amato alla follia, ma per altri motivi: Dick è stato un personaggio romanzesco a tutti gli effetti). Il libro di Slawenski lo consiglio per una visione completa dell’autore senza troppi slanci soggettivi. È un ottimo testo se volete ripercorrere tutta la produzione (e la vita, ovviamente) dello scrittore, con un po’ di genealogia e i dettagli di come-quando-perché ha scritto questo o quel racconto (molti, in Italia, non ci sono mai arrivati).
Ah, manco a dirlo: ho intenzione di rileggere “Il giovane Holden” al più presto, cosa che volevo già fare lo scorso anno, poi però mi sono lasciata catturare da quelle meraviglie che sono Franny e Zooey (per dire, sapevate che F & Z dovevano essere due capitoli di un’opera più ampia? Kenneth lo sa).
December 4, 2015
I am at 49% November 18, 2015
He mentions how an interviewer tried to pin Salinger and Holden together and this totally upset him. Then people wanted to know more about Salinger trying to understand Holden. Also his character was influenced by the short story My Old Man, who was based on a story by Sherwood Anderson I Want to Know Why
He didn't try to explain his books...the were to much a part of him and he was trying to guard his privacy. Interesting since I think he was an interrogator in the war. Reading this gave me huge writer's envy. But it was tempered with the isolation, that I wasn't ready to adopt.
He mentions how an interviewer tried to pin Salinger and Holden together and this totally upset him. Then people wanted to know more about Salinger trying to understand Holden. Also his character was influenced by the short story My Old Man, who was based on a story by Sherwood Anderson I Want to Know Why
He didn't try to explain his books...the were to much a part of him and he was trying to guard his privacy. Interesting since I think he was an interrogator in the war. Reading this gave me huge writer's envy. But it was tempered with the isolation, that I wasn't ready to adopt.
October 26, 2011
I did enjoy this book enough to complete it, but it would be an exaggeration to claim that I liked it. Any sense of objectivity was absent. It's full of speculation to compensate for the lack of factual information, and descriptions of events feel hyperbolic or fabricated. The author often uses phrases like "it's easy to imagine..." in order to plug the gaps, and it becomes quite grating. Also conspicuously missing was any mention of Salinger's daughter having unflattering things to say about her father in her memoirs, which makes me wonder what else was left out, despite all the compensatory filler. Also odd, the last statement in the book is an appeal to personal integrity. This coming from a biographer that clearly violated Salinger's pleas for privacy, addressed to an equally guilty readership. Overall, the most apt term I can think of for this book is "phony."
January 2, 2024
Written by a blogger instead of a biographer - and it shows.
August 15, 2024
The would-be writer of a J.D. Salinger biography has set themselves up for an incredibly difficult assignment. There's not a single figure in our history that was so monomaniacal about protecting their privacy in every aspect of their life as Salinger, a man who would truly hate the way we live in public on the internet now. Salinger was so publicity-adverse that it was one of the great traumas of his life to see his face on the back cover of The Catcher and the Rye.
Slawenski does what we can given his dearth of material but it is basically impossible to write at length about Salinger without a lot of guesswork and supposition. For source material, you have his actual published written output, you have some documentation about his life in the army, you have the acceptance or rejection letters from various magazines where he tried to publish his stories, and you have the handful of times he spoke to the press or someone who knew him gave an interview. It doesn't add up to very much if your goal as a biographer is to get beyond literary criticism and the bare outline of his personal life.
And of course you have the Grand Canyon-like expanse of the the final 45 years of his life, where he published no material and was neither heard or seen beyond his property and the nearby environs of the small New Hampshire community where he lived. Whatever was truly happening with Salinger over the course of these decades, neither you, me, or Slawenski can say.
I levy these criticisms against this book somewhat reluctantly because I am hard pressed to imagine how to do it any better. It's obvious that Slawenski admires Salinger, though its a point that I agree with. Salinger was a tremendously insightful writer and first rate prose stylist. Slawenski's writing is much more down to earth, but comparing the two is like comparing Picasso and a house painter. May none of us have our writing judged against the all-time greats.
How do you go about taking a picture of the Incredible Disappearing Man? How do you describe the color of air?
Slawenski does what we can given his dearth of material but it is basically impossible to write at length about Salinger without a lot of guesswork and supposition. For source material, you have his actual published written output, you have some documentation about his life in the army, you have the acceptance or rejection letters from various magazines where he tried to publish his stories, and you have the handful of times he spoke to the press or someone who knew him gave an interview. It doesn't add up to very much if your goal as a biographer is to get beyond literary criticism and the bare outline of his personal life.
And of course you have the Grand Canyon-like expanse of the the final 45 years of his life, where he published no material and was neither heard or seen beyond his property and the nearby environs of the small New Hampshire community where he lived. Whatever was truly happening with Salinger over the course of these decades, neither you, me, or Slawenski can say.
I levy these criticisms against this book somewhat reluctantly because I am hard pressed to imagine how to do it any better. It's obvious that Slawenski admires Salinger, though its a point that I agree with. Salinger was a tremendously insightful writer and first rate prose stylist. Slawenski's writing is much more down to earth, but comparing the two is like comparing Picasso and a house painter. May none of us have our writing judged against the all-time greats.
How do you go about taking a picture of the Incredible Disappearing Man? How do you describe the color of air?
sounded_good_but_no
July 7, 2020Based on some of the reviews on Goodreads, I would consider passing on this, or at least reading it with a wary eye; but I think in Salinger, Shields and Salerno even call out this author as having details wrong (but I can't seem to find that page again).
From Amazon's description: "Slawenski constructs a traditional biographical narrative from the stew of secondary sources" (whereas Shields/Salerno have first-hand interviews).
But like I said in my review of the Shields/Salerno work, can we even really know what the "true" story is at this point? Salinger didn't want to let everyone into his life; maybe he told untruths to people, either to keep them away, to lead them astray, to make himself sound better/different, or because he himself was getting the story wrong.
From Amazon's description: "Slawenski constructs a traditional biographical narrative from the stew of secondary sources" (whereas Shields/Salerno have first-hand interviews).
But like I said in my review of the Shields/Salerno work, can we even really know what the "true" story is at this point? Salinger didn't want to let everyone into his life; maybe he told untruths to people, either to keep them away, to lead them astray, to make himself sound better/different, or because he himself was getting the story wrong.
January 16, 2023
How do you write a biography on an author who would never have wanted one? To go against his wishes after death. This was on my mind as I read this, and I couldn’t help thinking how weird it was. However, I am glad to learn more about J.D. Salinger. This book was very tedious (perhaps too much so), but with newfound knowledge on his life and beliefs I hope to reread his works and indulge and understand them more.
February 6, 2023
Picked this up because of my love for The Catcher in the Rye. I enjoyed it a lot more than I even expected to. The author gives a lot of insight into Salinger’s life which makes me appreciate Catcher even more. I also learned a lot about Salinger’s other works and I’m looking forward to reading those. Overall, a really good biography.
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