J. Salinger biography. Jerome Salinger - books and biography

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Biography, life story of Jerome David Salinger

Jerome David Salinger is an American-born writer.

Childhood, family

Jerome was born on January 1, 1919 in New York in the family of Solomon Salinger, a Jew of Lithuanian origin. My father sold kosher smoked meats and cheeses. Mother's name was Miriam Salinger. Born into a Scots-Irish family. Solomon and Miriam had another child, a daughter, Doris, born eight years earlier than Jerome.

Early life and education

From Jerome's early years, Solomon Salinger dreamed that his son would receive a decent education. In 1936, Jerome, at the insistence of his father, graduated from military school in Valley Forge (Pennsylvania). In the summer of 1937, the young man began attending lectures at New York University, after which he went with his father to Austria and Poland for a year (in Poland, Solomon forced Jerome to study sausage production, hoping to one day transfer his business to his son).

In 1938, Jerome Salinger returned to his native land and for some time attended lectures at Ursinus College. In 1939, the young man entered Columbia University. He especially enjoyed attending lectures by Mr. Burnett, editor of Story magazine. One way or another, Jerome was unable to graduate from any of the educational institutions, which terribly angered his father. As a result, Solomon and Jerome had a terrible quarrel and stopped communicating.

Army

In 1942, Jerome Salinger was drafted into the army. He graduated from the Signal Corps Officer-Sergeant School and received the rank of sergeant. In 1943, Salinger was transferred to counterintelligence and sent to Nashville (Tennessee). On June 6, 1944, Jerome took part in the landing of airborne troops in Normandy. During his service, he managed to work with prisoners of war, and also, together with his comrades, liberated several concentration camps.

Creation

Even in his youth, Jerome Salinger began publishing short stories in New York magazines. In 1948, his story “The Banana Fish Is Good to Catch” brought him his first fame. Critics praised Salinger's talent, his ability to emphasize the most important things and his excellent command of language.

CONTINUED BELOW

After his first success, Jerome published several more of his stories, after which, in 1951, his first and only novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was published. The plot of the novel is based on the narration of the story of his short life by a seventeen-year-old boy, Holden. Holden, in a very frank form, without mincing words, tells the reader about his perception of American reality, about his struggle with generally accepted moral rules, about his thoughts and experiences. Initially, the novel was intended for adults, but it gained particular popularity among young people of those years. The book made a real revolution in people's consciousness and had a huge impact on world culture of the last century. At first, the scandalous content of the novel caused considerable discontent among the censors. The book was banned in several US states and in several countries for excessive depression and profanity, which the author simply sprinkles in the novel. However, over time, the ban was lifted and “The Catcher in the Rye” was even included in the list of recommended literature for American schoolchildren to read. In the USSR, Salinger's novel appeared only ten years after his birth - Salinger's creation was published in the magazine "Foreign Literature" translated by Rita Yakovlevna Rait-Kovaleva.

Throughout his life, Jerome David Salinger wrote thirty-nine works, of which four remained unpublished (Children's Train (1944), Two Lonely Men (1944), The Birthday Boy (1946) and An Ocean Full of Balloons bowling" (1947)).

The unique style of Jerome Salinger

In almost all of Salinger's works, the main characters are children and teenagers under the age of fifteen. However, Jerome cannot be called a children's writer. In the lines written by this brilliant master of words, the theme of opposition to the norms and laws invented by people, opposition to the vile world that does not give a single chance for another life other than the one that it [the world] has prepared is easily discernible.

In most of Salenger's stories, the main characters are members of the Glass family (they appear in "Banana Fish Good," "Seymour: An Introduction," "Franny and Zooey" and other works). Through these characters, Jerome reveals the theme of confrontation between an individual endowed with talent and the outside world, cruel and merciless.

Reclusion

After the resounding success of the novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” Jerome Salenger went into the shadows and began to lead the life of a real recluse. He refused to communicate with the press and did not give any interviews. In 1965, Salenger stopped publishing his publications. He imposed a strict ban on the republication of his early works written before 1948, and several times suppressed attempts by publishers to publish his letters. Jerome wanted to leave this vile world once and for all. To do this, he even moved to the small town of Cornish (New Hampshire) and began to live in a house surrounded by a high fence. Being away from the outside world, from crowds of people, Salinger became interested in Buddhism, Hinduism, yoga, dianetics and macrobiotics. Sometimes he did small experiments on himself - for example, he could eat only raw vegetables for a whole week, then for several days he could eat only meat. Jerome considered his own urine a panacea and drank it for any manifestation of health problems.

Personal life

After the war, Jerome worked for some time as an American counterintelligence officer. Salinger was perfect for this position, since with all his soul he fiercely hated Nazism and everything connected with it. One day he arrested a girl named Sylvia, who was a member of the Nazi Party. Paradoxically, Sylvia became Jerome's wife. True, their marriage was very short-lived. Ultimately, Sylvia's hatred of Jews and Jerome's hatred of Nazis won out over the love and tenderness between the spouses.

In 1950, Jerome Salinger met sixteen-year-old Claire Douglas, a girl from a highly respected British family. Jerome and Claire got married when the latter had not even graduated from high school. Salinger took Claire to his own home in Corniche. The house was in a terrible state - there was neither normal heating nor water supply. However, Jerome forced his teenage wife to cook him gourmet meals every day and demanded that his bed linen be changed twice a week. A few years later, Claire realized she was pregnant. Jerome did not want to have children, but did not do anything. He only began to treat the unfortunate girl even worse than before. At one point, Claire even began to think about suicide, but changed her mind in time. In 1995, Claire gave birth to a girl. Salinger wanted to name his daughter Phoebe in honor of one of the characters in his story, Holden's sister, but Claire insisted that the baby be named Margaret. A little later, another child was born in the family - son Matthew. Despite the fact that children were unwanted for Jerome Salinger, he was a good father.

In 1985, Jerome and Claire divorced. And at sixty-six years old, Salenger still had a passion for young girls. His third wife was young Colleen, who was barely sixteen years old. Colleen voluntarily agreed to live in the Corniche in a separate hut of her elderly husband.

Death

On January 27, 2010, Jerome David Salinger died at his home. At the time of his death, the writer was ninety-one years old.

Famous American writer Jerome David Salinger became one of the most influential authors of the 20th century. The writer’s most famous publication was the novel “The Catcher in the Rye.” As for volumes, his contribution to literature cannot be called great, but few writers could be put on the same level as him.

Childhood and youth

Jerome David Salinger was born on January 1, 1919 in New York City. The boy's father, Solomon Salinger, was a Jew of Lithuanian origin who was engaged in the wholesale trade of smoked meats and cheeses. Miriam's mother, who before the wedding bore the name Mary Gillick, who was of Scots-Irish descent, converted to Judaism. In addition to Jerome, his older sister Doris was raised in the family. The difference between the children is 8 years and 2 months.

The father sought to raise his son as an educated man. In 1936, the young man graduated from a military school in Valley Forge. This is where his debut in literature took place: Jerome wrote 3 stanzas for the school anthem, which is still performed today.

In the summer of 1937, Salinger attended lectures at New York University, and after a year he was in Poland, where in the city of Bydgoszcz, at the request of his father, he studied sausage making. Returning home, he attended lectures at Ursinus College, Pennsylvania, and in 1939 he entered Columbia University, where he attended a course of lectures on short history, taught by W. Burnett.

As a result, David did not graduate from any educational institution and showed no career aspirations. By this he displeased his father, with whom he eventually quarreled forever.

In the spring of 1942, Jerome was drafted into the army, where he graduated from the officer-sergeant school of the signal troops. The following year, with the rank of sergeant, the man was transferred to counterintelligence and sent to the city of Nashville (Tennessee).

Creation

The main characters of most of Salinger's works are children under 17 years of age. However, he can hardly be called a “children’s” writer. In his work, the author raises the topic of confrontation between a teenager and the world around him. The heroes of the works contain an existence that does not find certain boundaries.

The debut story “Young People” was published in 1940 by Story magazine. As for the first serious fame, it came after the publication of “Banana Fish Are Well Caught,” which describes the day of Seymour Glass and his wife.

11 years after the publication of the first work, on July 16, 1951, the only novel “The Catcher in the Rye” was published; the author worked on this story for 10 years.

Literary critics of that time approved of the novel, which is still not losing popularity. However, the book was banned in some countries and US states due to its depressing and abusive language.

By the time the novel was published, 26 works by Jerome had been published in various editions, including 7 out of 9 short stories. In 1953, they compiled a separate collection called Nine Stories. In the 60s, the works “Franny and Zooey” and “Higher the Rafters, Carpenters” were published.

Personal life

In 1942, Jerome began dating Oona, the daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill. But soon she met and subsequently married him.

Salinger's first wife was the German Sylvia Welter. He first arrested a Nazi and then married her. Together they returned to America, where they lived for some time in the house of Jerome's parents. But the marriage turned out to be short-lived - after not even a year, the couple separated.

According to Salinger's daughter, the reason for the breakup was the incompatibility of opinions: the author later came up with the contemptuous nickname “Salva” for the girl, which translates to “saliva” in English.

The writer's second wife was student Claire Douglas, daughter of art critic Robert Langton Douglas. The meeting took place in 1950, at that time Claire was 16 years old, and the author was 31 years old. A girl from a respected British family traveled across the Atlantic away from the war.

Some sources claim that the author seduced young Claire, but this is not entirely accurate. At that time, Jerome was improving spiritually and abstaining from intimacy. An Indian guru acted as his mentor, and his practices were reflected in the writer’s works.

Claire and Jerome married in 1955 and had a daughter, Margaret, and a son, Matthew. Salinger insisted that his wife quit her studies 4 months before graduation and move in with him. The girl succumbed to persuasion and did as her lover asked.

The house in which the young family lived could only be called habitable with a stretch. However, as Margaret reports from her mother’s words, the already famous writer demanded that his wife offer gourmet meals and change bed linen 2 times a week.

As a child, the daughter was often sick, but the man, based on his convictions, refused to call a doctor. Claire later admitted to her daughter that she literally walked on the edge, considering committing suicide during pregnancy.

According to Margaret, she and her brother were born by chance; the girl believes that for J.D. they were unlikely to be desired children. But the writer turned out to be a good father: he often played with the kids and captivated them with stories of his own composition.

However, he was constantly uncontrollably attracted to women. In 1966, the writer divorced Claire, and soon her place was taken by journalist Joyce Maynard, who was 18 years old at that time.

Salinger's last wife was Colleen, she was 50 years younger.

Death

After The Catcher in the Rye became popular, Salinger led a reclusive life. After 1965, the author stopped publishing - he composed stories only for himself.

In New Hampshire, Jerome David Salinger died of natural causes at his home on January 27, 2010. The writer's literary agent said that Salinger injured his pelvic bone in 2009, but felt well for a long time.

The documentary film "The Catcher in the Rye" talks about the personality and life of Salinger.

• At school, Jerome was often teased because of his middle name, David. To avoid trouble, Salinger forbade teachers from calling him by his middle name. By the way, the boy studied very poorly; among his school successes, only expressive performances at drama club performances can be distinguished.
• In 1942, the writer went into service, where he participated in the famous landing operation in Normandy. Returning home, Salinger was hospitalized and diagnosed with a nervous breakdown.
• The author had a hard time experiencing his popularity after the publication of The Catcher in the Rye. Jerome did not want to communicate with journalists and led a reclusive life. The writer responded with a categorical refusal to an attempt to create a collection of his letters.

• The writer studied alternative medicine, Hinduism and Buddhism. His worldview was very unique.
• Despite the fact that Salinger bought himself a house in the distance, near the forest, surrounded it with a fence and hung signs “No Trespassing,” the writer could regularly be seen in a bar with different girls.
• Salinger did give one interview - to a high school student for the Claremont Daily Eagle newspaper. When the writer learned that the article had made the front page of the local newspaper, he was furious. It was after this incident that Jerome, feeling betrayed, surrounded the house with a high fence.

Documentary film "Salinger"

• Salinger bequeathed the publication of his unpublished works in the period from 2015 to 2020. Among them are autobiographical information about the interrogations he conducted during the Second World War.
• In the story "The Lost Letter" the author's real phone number was published: 603-675-5244.
• At the end of 2016, the educational center The Center For Cartoon Studies opened a call for applications from artists wishing to live in Salinger's former residence. The winner was given a small scholarship, which allowed him to concentrate on creating a special work.

The house where Jerome Salinger lived for the last 45 years

• One day, literary critic Ian Hamilton, clearly not looking for easy ways, tried to write a biography of the author. But Jerome was so furious that he sued Hamilton to stop the use of the previously unpublished letters.
• There were 3 "numbered" cats living in Salinger's house: Kitty-1, Kitty-2 and Kitty-3.

Quotes

Just because a person died, you can’t stop loving him, damn it, especially if he was better than everyone else alive, you know?

It would be better if some things didn't change. It would be nice if they could be placed in a glass display case and not be touched.

A woman's body is a violin; you have to be a great musician to make it sound.

The day will come when you will have to decide where to go. And you must immediately go where you decided. Immediately. You have no right to waste a single minute. You can't do this.

I imagined how little children played in the evening in a huge field in the rye. Thousands of kids, and around - not a soul, not a single adult except me. And I’m standing on the very edge of the cliff, over the abyss, you know? And my job is to catch the kids so they don’t fall into the abyss. You see, they are playing and don’t see where they are running, and then I run up and catch them so that they don’t fall off. That's all my work. Guard the guys over the abyss in the rye. I know this is nonsense, but this is the only thing I really want. I'm probably a fool.

Bibliography

• 1940 - Teenagers
• 1940 - See Eddie
• 1941 - I’m guilty, I’ll correct myself
• 1941 - The Soul of an Unlucky Story
• 1942 - Lois Taggett's protracted debut
• 1942 - Unofficial report about one infantryman
• 1943 - Varioni Brothers
• 1943 - Overturned Forest
• 1944 - By mutual consent
• 1944 - Soft-hearted Sergeant
• 1944 - Last day of the last dismissal
• 1944 - Once a week - you won’t be missed
• 1945 - Elaine
• 1945 - I'm crazy
• 1945 - Soldier in France
• 1945 - Herring in a barrel
• 1945 - The Outsider
• 1946 - Light Riot on Madison Avenue
• 1948 - A familiar girl
• 1949 - The Man Who Laughed
• 1949 - In a boat
• 1951 - And these lips and eyes are green
• 1952 - De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period
• 1953 - Teddy
• 1955 - Above the rafters, carpenters
• 1959 - Seymour: Introduction
• 1965 - 16th Hepworth Day

Jerome David Salinger(Jerome David Salinger)

His writing career began with the publication of short stories in New York magazines. During the Second World War, the writer took part in the military operations of American troops in Europe from the very beginning of the Normandy landings. He took part in the liberation of several concentration camps.

His first story, “The Young Folks,” was published in Story magazine in 1940. Salinger’s first major fame came from the short story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” (1948), the story of one day in the lives of a young man, Seymour Glass, and his wife.

Eleven years after its first publication, Salinger released his only novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1951), which met with unanimous critical acclaim and remains especially popular among high school and college students, who find in the views and behavior of the hero, Holden Caulfield , a close echo of my own moods. The book was banned in several countries and in some places in the United States for being depressing and using abusive language, but is now included in the recommended reading lists in many American schools.

In 1953, the collection “Nine Stories” was published. In the 60s, the short stories “Franny and Zooey” and the story “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters” were published.

After the novel “The Catcher in the Rye” gained tremendous popularity, Salinger began to lead the life of a recluse, refusing to give interviews. After 1965 he stopped publishing, writing only for himself. Moreover, he imposed a ban on the republication of early works (before “The Banana Fish is Well Caught”) and stopped several attempts to publish his letters. In recent years, he had virtually no interaction with the outside world, living behind a high fence in a mansion in the town of Cornish, New Hampshire, and practicing a variety of spiritual practices, such as Buddhism, Hinduism, yoga, macrobiotics, dianetics, and alternative medicine. .

All these years he did not stop writing, but lost all interest in publishing his books during his lifetime. According to Margaret Salinger, her father developed a special system of marks - manuscripts that should be published after death without any editing are marked in red, and those in need of editing are marked in blue. However, nothing is known about the exact number of future bestsellers.

As, indeed, about other aspects of the writer’s life. Local residents say they sometimes saw him at the Universalist church and in local restaurants.
They had long since become accustomed to being next to the classic man and had come to respect his reclusiveness. Everyone knew about the location of his home here, but it was revealed to crazy fans all these years with obvious reluctance. Moreover, attempts to penetrate this ivory tower were not particularly successful for anyone.

The last time the writer’s name appeared in the information field was in 2009, when he filed a lawsuit against the Swede Frederik Kolting. The author, hiding under a pseudonym, dared to compose a sequel to “The Catcher in the Rye” called “60 Years Later: Coming Out of the Rye.” The novel tells the story of a certain 76-year-old Mr. K., who escapes from a nursing home and wanders around New York, remembering his youth, like Holden Caulfield, who once escaped from a boarding school. Salinger rightly accused the Swede, who went by the pseudonym J.D. California, of plagiarism, and in July last year his claim was satisfied. This summer, many people hoped that the writer would break his seclusion and talk at least a little about his life during these years, but this never happened. And he himself, it seems, did not need it. Now more than ever it becomes clear that Salinger, like no one else, understood the truism, but which has lost its meaning in our time - the author receives eternal life only thanks to his works. And this third life of Salinger is still awaiting us.

In the USSR and Russia, his works were translated and published, and gained popularity, primarily among the intelligentsia. The most successful and famous are the translations of Rita Wright-Kovalyova.

J.D. Salinger was born and raised in the fashionable area of ​​New York - Manhattan. His father, a Jew by nationality, was a successful kosher cheese merchant, his mother had Scots-Irish roots. As a child, Jerome's name was Sonny. The Salinger family had a beautiful apartment on Park Avenue. After several years of prep school, Jerome attended Valley Forge Military Academy (1934-1936). Friends at the academy later recalled that he was a caustic and witty person. In 1937, at the age of 18, Salinger spent five months in Europe. From 1937 to 1938 he studied at Ursinus College, and then at New York University. She falls in love with Oona O'Neil and writes letters to her every day; later, to Salinger's considerable surprise, she married Charlie Chaplin, who was much older than her.

In 1939, Salinger studied short story writing at Columbia University with Witt Burnett, founder and editor of Story Magazine. During World War II, Salinger was drafted and served in the infantry, participated in the Normandy operation, his comrades said that he was very brave, a real hero. In the very first months spent in Europe, Salinger managed to write several stories and meet Ernest Hemingway in Paris. He also took part in one of the bloodiest episodes of the war at Hürtgenwald, a futile battle where he witnessed the horrors of war.

In his famous story “Dear Esmé—With Love and Squalor,” Salinger portrayed a tired American soldier. He begins a correspondence with a thirteen-year-old British girl, who helps him regain his zest for life. According to Salinger biographer Ian Hamilton, the writer himself was hospitalized due to stress. After serving as an army signalman and counterintelligence officer from 1942 to 1946, he devoted himself to writing. He played poker with other aspiring writers and was known to be dark in character but always winning. Salinger considered Hemingway and Steinbeck to be second-rate writers, but praised Melville. In 1945, Salinger married a French woman named Sylvia, she was a doctor. They were later divorced, and in 1955 Salinger married Claire Douglas, daughter of the British art critic Robert Langton Douglas. The marriage ended in 1967 as Salinger delved into his inner world and Zen Buddhism.

Salinger's early stories appeared in such publications as Story, which published his first story in 1940, the Saturday Evening Post and Esquire, and then The New Yorker, which published almost all of his later stories. texts. In 1948, A Perfect Day For Bananafish appeared, about Seymour Glass committing suicide. This is the earliest mention of the Glass family, stories about which would become the main focus of his writing. The Glass cycle continued in the collections Franny and Zooey (1961), Higher the Rafters, Carpenters (1963) and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). Several stories are told from Buddy Glass's point of view. “The 16th Day of Hepworth 1924” is written in the form of a letter from summer camp, in which seven-year-old Seymour portrays himself and his little brother Buddy. “So: when I look around and listen to those five or six most original old American poets - there may be more - and also read the numerous, talented eccentric poets and - especially lately - those able, innovative stylists, I am almost completely certain that we have had only three or four almost absolutely irreplaceable poets and that, in my opinion, Seymour will certainly be counted among them.”(“Seymore: Introduction”, trans. R. Wright-Kovalyova).

Twenty stories published in Collier's Saturday Evening Post, Esquire, Good Housekeeping, Cosmopolitan, and The New Yorker between 1941 and 1948 appeared in a pirated two-volume 1974 edition, The Complete Unpublished Stories of J. .D. Salinger." Many of them reflect Salinger's military service. Subsequently, the writer experienced Indo-Buddhist influence. He became a passionate devotee of The Teachings of Sri Ramakrishna, a book on Hindu mysticism that was translated into English by Swami Nikhilananda and Joseph Campbell.

Salinger's first novel, The Catcher in the Rye, was immediately selected as the Book of the Month Club and gained enormous international fame. It sold 250,000 copies annually. Salinger did not try to help the publicity, and they stated that his photographs should not be used in connection with the book. He later turned down requests for a film adaptation of the book.

Early reviews of the work were mixed, although most critics found the novel brilliant. Its title is taken from a line by Robert Burns that is misquoted by protagonist Holden Caulfield, who sees himself as a “catcher in the rye” who must keep all the children in the world from falling off some cliff of madness. The work is written as a monologue, in living slang. The troubled sixteen-year-old hero - like Salinger was in his youth - runs away from school during the Christmas holidays to New York, to find himself and lose his virginity. He spends the evening going to a nightclub, meets with a prostitute to no avail, and the next day runs into an old girlfriend. Then he gets drunk and sneaks home drunk. Holden's former teacher is harassing him. Holden meets with his sister to tell her about running away from home and having a nervous breakdown. The novel's humor is similar to Mark Twain's classic works “The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn” and “The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,” but its worldview is more disappointing. Holden describes everything as “fake” and is constantly in search of sincerity. He is one of the first characters to embody teenage existential angst, but he is full of life, and in many ways he is the literary opposite of the young Werther, Goethe's hero.

There were occasional rumors that Salinger would publish another novel, or that he was publishing under a pseudonym, perhaps like Thomas Pynchon. “A true artist, I noticed, can withstand anything. (Even praise, as I readily hope)”, Salinger wrote in Seymour: An Introduction. Since the late 60s he has avoided publicity. Journalists assumed that since he did not give interviews, he had something to hide. In 1961, Time magazine sent a team of journalists to investigate his private life. “I like to write. I love to write. But I write only for myself and for my own pleasure,” Salinger said in a 1974 interview with a New York Times reporter. However, according to Joyce Maynard, who has long been close to the author since the 1970s, Salinger still writes, but does not allow anyone to see the work. Maynard was eighteen years old when she received the letter from the author, and after intense correspondence she moved in with him.

Ian Hamilton's unapproved biography of Salinger was rewritten because he disagreed with the extensive citation of his personal letters. New version, “Finding J.D. Salinger”, appeared in 1988. In 1992, a fire broke out at Salinger's Cornish home, but he managed to escape from reporters who saw an opportunity to interview him. Since the late 1980s, Salinger has been married to Colleen O'Neill. Maynard's account of her relationship with Salinger, At Home in the World, appeared in October 1998. Salinger broke his silence through his lawyers in 2009, when they began legal action to stop the publication of an unauthorized sequel to Caulfield's story, entitled Sixty Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, published in Britain under the pseudonym John David California. The 33-year-old Swedish writer, Fredrik Colting, had previously published humorous books.

About “The Catcher In The Rye”
part 2 , part 3
Story about the book (in English).

There are writers whose lives are no less interesting than their work. These include whose biography is full of events. These are philosophical searches for oneself, the study of many sciences, the Second World War, service in intelligence, returning home and recognition for short stories and the only published novel.

You can make a movie about him. Only the writer forbade doing this, as well as filming his books. You will learn why this happened in our article.

The most mysterious writer of the century

Jerome David Salinger is known not only for his works, but also for his secluded lifestyle, which has given rise to many myths and conjectures around him. At the peak of fame, the author suddenly stops publishing his books. At the same time, he does not stop writing, and besides, he almost completely limits communication with the press and critics. There is no more favor for readers; Salinger also stops giving autographs.

There were legends about his voluntary hermitage. And in one of his interviews, the American film actor told how one of the tests imposed on him by his beloved girl, whose favor he persistently sought, was to get the autograph of this movie star, who claims that he succeeded in getting the coveted signature. But for many of Salinger's readers and fans, luck never smiled.

Life path

Jerome David Salinger was born on New Year's Day 1919 in New York (United States of America) into a Jewish family. His father was a merchant, and the family lived quite prosperously. Mother had Scottish and Irish roots. At a young age, the writer took his first steps in writing. His stories were brief, but even then quite succinct.

In 1936, Salinger (whose biography has many controversial moments) received a diploma from a closed military school. During his studies, he wrote several lines for the anthem of this institution, which are still included in its official version. Next, Salinger studied at New York University and practiced in Europe.

Upon his return, he enters where he listens to lectures on prose and short stories. But David was interested in studying only in these individual courses. He did not graduate from any university and was unable to make a career. This became a stumbling block with his father, who had high hopes for his son. As a result, after another family scandal, they turned away from each other forever.

World War II in the life of a writer

Salinger, whose biography is permeated with the influence of World War II, could not remain aloof from the events taking place. He decided that his place was at the front, and for a long time he fought for the opportunity to get there, since he was exempt from conscription for health reasons.

In 1943, with the rank of sergeant, the writer joined the counterintelligence department. While in the hottest spots, Salinger, whose biography will be strewn with memories of the war more than once, will write in his diary, and later in letters to loved ones, that he correctly understood his purpose and his place here. He recognized the correctness and value of his stay in the very heat of war, took part in the liberation of prisoners from concentration camps, was in reconnaissance, but the experience forever wounded him, closed him off from others, which later resulted in his reclusive life.

Confession

Returning home, the writer Salinger gains fame as a recognized short story writer. His story “The banana fish is good at catching” is on the lips of all critics and literature lovers. In the mid-forties, many magazines published his short stories and stories. The themes of his works are painful memories of war, of wounds that will never heal, of things he saw that will never be forgotten.

The writer's recognition will reach its apogee after the publication of the novel "The Catcher in the Rye" in 1951. The genre of the work will be called “educational novel.” This creation was sold out in unprecedented quantities - more than 60 million copies.

At the peak of fame and recognition, Salinger suddenly stopped publishing his works and in 1965 closed himself off from the world. He no longer gives interviews or autographs. What justifies this behavior is still a mystery to biographers and even to many of the writer’s acquaintances.

The great short story writer died at the age of 91 in his gated mansion in New Hampshire.

Creation. Short review

Salinger's work mainly consists of short stories and novellas. The only novel written and published by the author is The Catcher in the Rye.

Salinger created stories on a fairly broad topic, which changed along with the writer’s worldview. But the main idea is the same - the meaning of life, broken dreams and the philosophical search for oneself. The heroes of most short stories are children, teenagers and people in search of the purpose of life. Such images allow the writer to most clearly and succinctly reveal his thoughts and show the reader the results of his philosophical thoughts.

The writer's story is worthy of attention. It is a story about a student who taught the children, while telling them amazing stories about the noble robber - the Man who laughed. The guy John talks with inspiration, because a very beautiful and kind girl Mary helps him. It turns out that she is the daughter of noble and wealthy parents who are against her relationship with a simple student. When Mary is forced to break up with John, he tells a story in which his hero is defeated, and soon dies himself. The story condemns the social inequality that destroys the lives of the best people.

"Catcher in the rye"

This greatest novel almost immediately found many readers all over the world. Nevertheless, critics had mixed reactions to the work, accusing the writer of depressive motives. For more vivid, subtle characteristics of the characters and everything that happens in the novel, abusive language is used, which led to a ban on the publication of the work in some states. It is now included in school literature curricula throughout the world.

Salinger, whose novels were closed for publication by himself, forbade the film adaptation of his work when it was discussed in the 80s and 90s. The main argument was that the events of the work take place in the soul of the main character, so it is almost impossible to show it the way the author saw and created it.

The novel is about a boy, Holden Caulfield. Nobody understands him, and he himself has difficulty accepting his surroundings. He grows up, and in this growing up his dreams and ideals crumble to dust monstrously quickly. The novel has such a strange name because in Caulfield’s thoughts there lives a dream - to catch children over the abyss when they, having played too much, find themselves in danger. This is a rather symbolic association. Most likely, Holden dreams of helping children preserve their childhood in his cheerfulness and openness to the world, where dreams are not yet broken forever. The original title of the novel, The Catcher in the Rye, translates as “The Catcher in the Rye.”

Quotes and aphorisms

The mysterious writer left us not only the greatest literary heritage, but also many aphorisms. This is because Salinger was a true master of the pen. We will present the most striking and recognizable quotes:

• “Just because a person died, you can’t stop loving him, especially if he was better than all the living, you know?” - in the voice of his hero from the novel “The Catcher in the Rye” the writer will utter a truth full of pain and truth.
• “And I am captivated by books that, as soon as you finish reading them, you immediately think: it would be nice if this writer became your best friend, and that you could talk to him.” Holden Caulfield will say this, and it’s hard not to agree with him.

• “You need to let the person talk, since he started talking interestingly and got carried away. I really like it when a person talks with enthusiasm. It’s good.” These words also belong to Caulfield.
• “An immature person wants to die for his cause, but a mature person wants to live for a just cause.”

Finally

To read or not to read is everyone's business. But by staying away from the classics of world literature, you deprive yourself of the pleasure of exploring completely new worlds. Thus, Salinger's stories are completely complete microcosms of his heroes. Searches and disappointments, everyday life and real disasters in their souls will not leave you indifferent, will enrich your inner world and help you to know yourself better.