JD Salinger: 1919 – 2010
J.D. Salinger, one of the most widely read and enigmatic authors of the last century, has passed away at 91. Untold numbers of people have read what is considered the greatest coming of age story of all time, his novel, “Catcher in the Rye.” The book, his best known work, has been a staple of high school curricula across the nation, and the object of great adulation and controversy.
An adventurous life
Salinger was born in 1919 and after graduating high school, left for Austria to learn the meat packing trade.After just over a year in Austria, he left just before the annexation of Austria by Germany. He began taking a night time creative writing class at Columbia University, studying with Whit Burnett, who became his mentor. Salinger wrote several stories published in various publications in the 1940s including “Slight Rebellion off the Madison,” which was published by The New Yorker in 1941 and featured the character Holden Caufield, who would become the focus of his magnum opus.
In 1942, he was drafted into the US Army, and fought in both the invasion of Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge.He became friends and correspondent with Ernest Hemingway, who was in Paris during WW2. Once he had returned home after the war, he set about becoming a successful author, and found success with his short stories, the form of fiction which made up the bulk of his output.
The Catcher in the Rye
Salinger had toyed with the idea of a novel about the character Holden Caufield since the early 1940s, and by 1951 had written and published his magnum opus. The book details a young man, Holden Caufield, and his experiences and disillusionment with the “phoniness” of both school and of adulthood in general. The book is considered to still be the greatest work about teen angst, and was a sort of an autobiographical catharsis for the author. To this day, it is a source of great controversy because of the language and events in the novel. It is also one of the most widely taught books in high school, alongside only “Of Mice and Men” by Steinbeck.He moved to Cornish, New Hampshire in the 1950s, residing there until his death.
After Catcher
After the novel was published, he still wrote many short stories, and published other novels and story anthologies, including “Franny and Zooey,” until 1965, when he published his last work, a short story entitled “Hapworth 16, 1924″ and basically dropped off the face of the earth. He became a recluse, writing often but never publishing.He left instructions on what was to be done with his unpublished works after his passing. Many people would give payday loans and more to get their hands on his unpublished works, and doubtless something will be done with them in the near future.
