J D Salinger

J. D. Salinger (Jerome David Salinger) , 1919-, American novelist and short-story writer, b. New York City. Salinger depicts the loneliness and frustration of individuals caught in a world of banalities and restricting conformity. His best-known work, The Catcher in the Rye (1951), is a picaresque novel that describes the adventures of a schoolboy at odds with society. It remains an extremely popular novel among adolescents, who view it as a testament to the purity and honesty of youth. Many of his short stories concern the Glass family, presented by Salinger as overly sensitive people in a materialistic world. In 1965, Salinger retreated from public life, winning an injunction in 1987 against a researcher who intended to publish excerpts of his letters. Collections of his stories, most of which first appeared in The New Yorker magazine, include Nine Stories (1953), Franny and Zooey (1961), Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters (1963), and Seymour, An Introduction (1963).

Bibliography: See memoir, Dream Catcher (2000), by his daughter, M. A. Salinger; biography by I. Hamilton (1989); studies by G. Rosen (1977) and W. French (1988).

Salinger, J.D. ( Jerome David) (1919– ) US novelist. He achieved fame with his first book and only novel, Catcher in the Rye (1951). The story of a tortured teenager, it is recounted in modern speech, and its style influenced a new generation of US writers. His other works are collections of short stories, including Franny and Zooey (1961).

Salinger, J. D. ( Jerome David Salinger) (1919– ), American novelist and short story writer, born in New York. He is best known for his novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951), the story of adolescent Holden Caulfield who runs away from boarding-school in Pennsylvania to New York, where he preserves his innocence despite various attempts to lose it. Salinger's other works include Franny and Zooey (1961), two stories about two members of the eccentric Glass family; and two stories narrated by Buddy Glass appeared originally in the New Yorker and were published together as Raise High the Roof-Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction (1963).