J. D. Salinger

John Wenke (Salisbury State University)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 1 Jan 1919
Died 27 Jan 2010
Activity 1951-1965

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Novelist
Story-writer

Resources

Salinger's Works

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J. D. Salinger began his career as a publishing fiction writer in1940 with the appearance of “The Young Folks” in

Story

and concluded it in 1965 with the publication of “Hapworth 16, 1924” in the

New Yorker

The Catcher in the Rye

(1951) remains Salinger's masterwork. In the novel Holden Caulfield provides a vibrant account of “this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy.” Holden's comic and harrowing escapades have made him a cultural hero. This alienated teenager with a slash of gray hair seems more a confused loner than an iconoclastic rebel. Alternately brash and sentimental Holden hates “phonies,” longs for innocence and styles himself a champion of vulnerable children…

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2534 words

Citation: Wenke, John. "J. D. Salinger". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 17 September 2004 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3915, accessed 21 November 2024.]