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 New Yorker" that ""Catcher in the Rye" rewrites" among each new generation had become "a literary genre all its own". He classed among them Sylvia Plath's "The Bell Jar" (1963), Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas" (1971), Jay McInerney's "Bright Lights, Big City" (1984), and Dave Eggers's "A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius" (2000). Writer Aimee Bender was struggling with her first short stories when a friend gave her a copy of "Nine Stories"; inspired, she later described Salinger's effect on writers, explaining: "[I]t feels like Salinger wrote "The Catcher in the Rye" in a day, and