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
J. D. Salinger Salinger's religious studies were reflected in some of his writing. The story "Teddy" features a ten-year-old child who expresses Vedantic insights. He also studied the writings of Ramakrishna's disciple Vivekananda; in the story "Hapworth 16, 1924", the character of Seymour Glass describes him as "one of the most exciting, original and best-equipped giants of this century." In 1953, Salinger published a collection of seven stories from "The New Yorker" ("Bananafish" among them), as well as two that the magazine had rejected. The collection was published as "Nine Stories" in the United States, and "For Esmé—with Love and Squalor" in the