J. D. Salinger
| Date of Birth | : | 01 Jan, 1919 |
| Date of Death | : | 27 Jan, 2010 |
| Place of Birth | : | Manhattan, New York, United States |
| Profession | : | Author |
| Nationality | : | American |
J.D. Salinger was a literary giant despite his slim body of work and reclusive lifestyle. His landmark novel, The Catcher in the Rye, set a new course for literature in post-WWII America and vaulted Salinger to the heights of literary fame. Despite his slim body of work and reclusive lifestyle, Salinger was one of the most influential American writers of the 20th century. His short stories, many of which appeared in The New Yorker, inspired the early careers of writers such as Phillip Roth, John Updike and Harold Brodkey. In 1953, Salinger moved from New York City and led a secluded life, only publishing one new story before his death.
Early Life
Writer Jerome David Salinger was born on January 1, 1919, in New York, New York. Salinger was the youngest of two children born to Sol Salinger, the son of a rabbi who ran a thriving cheese and ham import business, and Miriam, Sol's Scottish-born wife. At a time when mixed marriages of this sort were looked at with disdain from all corners of society, Miriam's non-Jewish background was so well hidden that it was only after his bar mitzvah at the age of 14 that Salinger learned of his mother's roots.
Despite his apparent intellect, Salinger—or Sonny as he was known as child—wasn't much of a student. After flunking out of the McBurney School near his home in New York's Upper West Side, he was shipped off by his parents to Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania.
Aspiring Writer
After graduating from Valley Forge, Salinger returned to his hometown for one year to attend New York University before heading off to Europe, flush with some cash and encouragement from his father to learn another language and learn more about the import business. But Salinger, who spent the bulk of his five months overseas in Vienna, paid closer attention to language than business.
Upon returning home, he made another attempt at college, this time at Ursinus College in Pennsylvania, before coming back to New York and taking night classes at Columbia University. There, Salinger met Professor Whit Burnett, who would change his life.
Quotes
One day a long time from now you'll cease to care anymore whom you please or what anybody has to say about you. That's when you'll finally produce the work you're capable of.
The world is full of actors pretending to be human
Among other things, you'll find that you're not the first person who was ever confused and frightened and even sickened by human behavior. You're by no means alone on that score, you'll be excited and stimulated to know. Many, many men have been just as troubled morally and spiritually as you are right now. Happily, some of them kept records of their troubles. You'll learn from them—if you want to. Just as someday, if you have something to offer, someone will learn something from you. It's a beautiful reciprocal arrangement. And it isn't education. It's history. It's poetry.
The mark of the immature man is that he wants to die nobly for a cause, while the mark of the mature man is that he wants to live humbly for one.
All morons hate it when you call them a moron.
Make sure you marry someone who laughs at the same things you do.
She wasn't doing a thing that I could see, except standing there leaning on the balcony railing, holding the universe together.
I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.
Know your true measurements and dress your mind accordingly
I have so much I want to tell you, and nowhere to begin.
