J. D. Salinger - Author's Quotes
Jerome David Salinger (January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010) was an American writer known for his novel The Catcher in the Rye.
He was raised in Manhattan and began writing short stories while in secondary school. His father urged him to learn about the meat-importing business; he went to work in Europe but was so disgusted by the slaughterhouses that he decided to embark on a different career path. He left Austria one month before it was annexed by Nazi Germany on March 12, 1938. In 1942, he began to date Oona O'Neill, daughter of playwright Eugene O'Neill. He found her self-absorbed, yet he called her often and wrote her long letters. Their relationship ended when Oona began seeing Charlie Chaplin, whom she eventually married.
In 1948, his story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" appeared in The New Yorker magazine, which also published much of his later work. The Catcher in the Rye was published in novel form in 1951, having been serialised earlier. Many adolescent readers appreciated his depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in protagonist Holden Caulfield. The novel remains widely read and controversial, selling around 250,000 copies a year. The success of The Catcher in the Rye led to public attention and scrutiny, and Salinger became reclusive and led an obsessively private life for more than a half-century. He published his final work in 1965, and gave his last interview in 1980. He died of natural causes on January 27, 2010, at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire.
Occupation:
writer
Born:
01/01/19
Died:
01/27/10 (91)
He was one of those bald guys that comb all their hair over from the side to cover up the baldness. I'd rather be bald than do that.
Jane was different. We'd get into a goddam movie or something, and right away we'd start holding hands, and we wouldn't quit till the movie was over. And without changing the position or making a big deal out of it. You never even worried, with Jane, whether your hand was sweaty or not. All you knew was, you were happy. You really were.
I think that one of these days, you're going to have to find out where you want to go. And then you've got to start going there. But immediately. You can't afford to lose a minute. Not you.
I am a kind of paranoid in reverse. I suspect people of plotting to make me happy.