J. D. Salinger J. D. Salinger Jerome David Salinger (; January 1, 1919 January 27, 2010) was an American writer known for his widely read novel, "The Catcher in the Rye". Following his early success publishing short stories and "The Catcher in the Rye", Salinger led a very private life for more than a half-century. He published his final original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980. Salinger was raised in Manhattan and began writing short stories while in secondary school. Several were published in "Story" magazine in the early 1940s before he began serving in World War II. In
Salinger (book) Simon wrote in "Buffalo News" that this is a "now-irreplaceable book about the greatest enigma of modern American literature... "Salinger" can't tell 'all' about its subject but it tells more than we've ever known before... a complex but well-constructed narrative composed of fragments of history, anecdote and commentary." Tucker Shaw in "The Denver Post" called the book "an exhaustively detailed portrait of the famously reclusive novelist J. D. Salinger." Carl Rollyson in "The Wall Street Journal" wrote that while the book was "engrossing," it "is biography as scrapbook, chock-full of well-known figures and well-worn stories." Rollyson said that "Salinger" "would