“A man who used language as if it were pure energy beautifully controlled and who knew exactly what he was doing in every silence as well as in every word.”

 Born in Manhattan, NY  January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010  Jewish father, non-Jewish mother (controversial)  Had one older sister  Intelligent and strong writer, but flunked out of McBurney School  At McBurney, he managed the fencing team, wrote for the school newspaper and appeared in plays  After flunking out, his parents enrolled him at Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, PA  Began writing stories "under the covers [at night], with the aid of a flashlight“ and he was involved in multiple school groups  Despite all of his clubs and activities and great potential, he had a very difficult time fitting in and was only a mediocre student

 After high school, he attended New York University for one year in 1936  Went to Vienna, Austria in 1937 for a year to learn about import business – left one month before it was annexed by Nazi Germany  1938 attended school in PA, dropped out after one semester  1939 attended Columbia University where his writing career truly began  1942 drafted into WWII – fought in Utah Beach on D-Day, Battle of the Bulge and Battle of Hürtgen Forest  Liberated concentration camps – “You could live a lifetime and never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live.”  After WWII, he checked himself into a hospital for treatment for PTSD and depression (he never fully recovered)

 While in Germany, he married Sylvia Welter (possibly a former Nazi) - were only married for 8 months  In 1955, he married Claire Douglas and had two children: Margaret and Matthew  He began constantly changing his religious beliefs  Moved his family from NY to Cornish, NH to get away  Claire became a virtual prisoner as Salinger continued to isolate himself – they divorced in 1967  Despite his seclusion, he was quite the ladies man and had many romantic relationships  In the late 80s, he married Colleen O’Neill, a nurse much younger than him - not much is known about their marriage because she fully embraced his life of seclusion

 During the war in Europe, Salinger met Ernest Hemingway and told him about a story he was working on for a character named Holden Caulfield  He actually wrote Catcher in the Rye as a series of short stories, carried them on him throughout WWII, and then took several years to put them all together  Completed Catcher in 1950; published in 1951  Huge public impact, with mixed reviews: was a bestseller but also raised concern due to the “immorality and perversion” of Holden  Brilliant and meaningful vs. offensive  The novel is one of the most banned books in multiple countries but is also one of the most widely read and taught books  1970s, several teachers were fired or forced to resign for teaching it in class

 Coming of age story  Told in 1 st person, unreliable  Slang/authentic language  Stream of consciousness: a literary technique that reveals the thoughts and feelings of a character; the reader is given uninterrupted insight into the thought processes as they naturally occur  Themes: loss of innocence; growing up; teenage angst; being true to oneself; disconnect between teenagers and “phone adults”; perceptive, precocious intelligence of children  His energetic, realistic dialogue was revolutionary at the time  Identified closely with his characters  In 1953, he admitted that it was “sort of” autobiographical – “My boyhood was very much the same as that as the boy in the book... It was a great relief telling people about it.”

 Before  Much of his writing was rejected over and over  Salinger wanted fame  After  He continued writing, but he would often destroy his work because he hated the quality or wasn’t able to face the possibility of having it published – he liked to write for himself and viewed publication as an interruption  His later stories became longer, less plot-driven and increasingly filled with digression and parenthetical remarks (as if he himself was living out a stream of consciousness)  As notoriety of the book grew, Salinger gradually withdrew from public view and began publishing less and less  He became a recluse with the exception of remaining quite the ladies man – was involved romantically with various (younger) women throughout the years  His last interview was in 1980  Even though he stopped publishing any writings, he continued to write and have over 20 unpublished short stories/books when he died  Students and fans would stalk him at home, hoping to catch a glimpse  He even sued a man who was trying to write a biography about him without his permission  Once, he sold film rights to a short story and they changed it so much that he decided to never let anyone do that again. So when many, including Steven Spielberg, wanted to make Catcher into a film, Salinger refused. Years later, a close friend said that Salinger was the only person who could have played Holden.

 As a young man Mr. Salinger yearned ardently for just this kind of attention. He bragged in college about his literary talent and ambitions, and wrote swaggering letters to Whit Burnett, the editor of Story magazine. But success, once it arrived, paled quickly for him. He told the editors of Saturday Review that he was “good and sick” of seeing his photograph on the dust jacket of “The Catcher in the Rye” and demanded that it be removed from subsequent editions. He ordered his agent to burn any fan mail. In 1953 Mr. Salinger, who had been living on East 57th Street in Manhattan, fled the literary world altogether and moved to a 90-acre compound on a wooded hillside in Cornish. He seemed to be fulfilling Holden’s desire to build himself “a little cabin somewhere with the dough I made and live there for the rest of my life,” away from “any goddam stupid conversation with anybody.”

 Chapters 1-3 (pgs. 1-26)  Chapters 4-7 (pgs )  Chapters 8-10 (pgs )  Chapters (pgs )  Chapters (pgs )  Chapters (pgs )  Chapters (pgs )  Chapters (pgs )  Chapters (pgs ) Reading Quizzes -Chapters 1-7 -Chapters Chapters Chapters Final Test -You MAY use your study guide on all quizzes and the final test. -The Study Guide will also be collected for a HUGE grade.