Salinger, J. D.

Salinger, J. D. (Jerome David Salinger) (săl'injur) [key], 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).

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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