JD Salinger was an American author best known for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye. He grew up in New York to immigrant parents and attended a military academy as a teenager. During World War II, he served in the army and took part in the Normandy invasion. After the war, he struggled with PTSD and married briefly before focusing on writing. The Catcher in the Rye was hugely successful but also controversial, and Salinger became a reclusive writer, guarding his privacy intensely. He lived quietly in New Hampshire until his death in 2010 at age 91.

1. JD Salinger
biography

2. Photo by Anthony Di Gesu/San Diego Historical Society/Hulton Archive Collection/Getty Images.
JD Salinger
Born January 1, 1919
Died January 27, 2010

3. Early Life Salinger grew up in New York City, the youngest of two children.
His father, Sol Salinger, the son of a rabbi, ran a cheese and ham import business.
His mother, Miriam, was Scottish. Mixed marriages were so looked down on by
society that Miriam’s roots were hidden. Salinger didn’t know about his mother’s
ethnicity until is bar mitzvah at age 14

4. School
As a student, Salinger was active in
theater and singing. His patents sent
him to Valley Forge Military Academy,
a similar school to the school featured
in The Catcher in the Rye.

5. Military
After the attack on Pearl Harbor,
Salinger was drafted into the army.
He served from ‘42-’44. He landed at
Utah Beach in France during the
Normandy Invasion and saw the
Battle of the Bulge.

6. Adult life He had a nervous breakdown
during his military service. While
recovering, he met and married
a woman named Sylvia. They
were only married 8 months.
In 1955 he married Claire
Douglas. They were married a
little over 10 years and had 2
children.
He and Claire Douglas divorced.
Six years later he began a
relationship with college
freshman Joyce Maynard. They
lived together for 10 months
before he kicked her out.
He also dated actress Ellen Joyce.
He married Colleen O’Neill, a
young nurse, who remained his
wife to his death at his home in
Cornish.

7. The Catcher in the Rye
The Catcher in the Rye was
published on July 16, 1951. It
changed Salinger's life and
American fiction.
“Some saw the main character
of Caulfield and his quest for
something pure in an
otherwise ‘phony’ world as
promoting immoral views.”
To date the book has sold more
than 120 million copies
worldwide.

8. Recluse
He became a recluse because “He found fame abhorrent and literary criticism
distasteful.”
He moved to Cornish, New Hampshire and did his best to keep his life private.
When Ian Hamilton attempted an unauthorized biography of J.D. Salinger,
Salinger successfully protested the use of letters that he had written to
friends and editors between 1939 and 1961. He claimed infringement of
copyright and invasion of privacy even though the letters had been donated
to libraries and were available for study. A Federal Appeals Court denied use
of even short quotations or paraphrases from the letters. Salinger was
granted legal injunctions against publication of Hamilton's book; these were
upheld when the United States Supreme Court refused to review the verdicts
of two lower federal courts that held in favor of Salinger. The decision was
considered extraordinary. According to David Margolic, legal affairs writer for
the New York Times, this was "the first time in American memory that a book
had been enjoined prior to publication, and it sent shock waves throughout
the academic and publishing communities" (November 1, 1987).

9. Bio clip
http://www.cbsnews.com/news/lifting-the-veil-
of-mystery-from-jd-salinger/
5:23 about his reclusion
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-
2542921/Salinger-biopic-dives-deeper-late-
authors-relationship-16-year-old-girl.html
A 2:30 minute trailer

10. Themes
Innocence
Death
Authentic vs Artificial
Sexual Confusion

11. Symbols
Prep School Life
Allie’s baseball glove
Holden’s red hunting cap
Radio City Music Hall
The Carrousel's Gold Ring