page_title: J. D. Salinger
section_title: Early life
hierarchical_section_title: J. D. Salinger / Early life
caption_attribution_description: English: Looking southeast across Park Avenue and 91st St at 1133 Pk Av; childhood home of Salinger.
context_page_description: Jerome David Salinger was an American writer best known for his novel The Catcher in the Rye.
  Salinger published several short stories in Story magazine in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948, his critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" appeared in The New Yorker, which became home to much of his later work.
  The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951 and became an immediate popular success. Salinger's depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield was influential, especially among adolescent readers. The novel was widely read and controversial.
  The success of The Catcher in the Rye led to public attention and scrutiny. Salinger became reclusive, publishing new work less frequently. He followed Catcher with a short story collection, Nine Stories; a volume containing a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey; and a volume containing two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924," appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.
context_section_description: Jerome David Salinger was born in Manhattan, New York on January 1, 1919. His father, Sol Salinger, traded in kosher cheese, and was from a Jewish family of Lithuanian descent, his own father having been the rabbi for the Adath Jeshurun Congregation in Louisville, Kentucky. Salinger's mother, Marie (née Jillich), was born in Atlantic, Iowa, of German, Irish, and Scottish descent, but changed her name to Miriam and considered herself Jewish after marrying Salinger's father. Salinger did not learn that his mother was not of Jewish ancestry until just after he celebrated his bar mitzvah. He had only one  sibling, an older sister, Doris (1912–2001).
  In his youth, Salinger attended public schools on the West Side of Manhattan. Then in 1932, the family moved to Park Avenue, and Salinger was enrolled at the McBurney School, a nearby private school. Salinger had trouble fitting in at his new school and took measures to conform, such as calling himself Jerry. His family called him Sonny. At McBurney, he managed the fencing team, wrote for the school newspaper and appeared in plays. He "showed an innate talent for drama," though his father opposed the idea of his becoming an actor. His parents then enrolled him at Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Salinger began writing stories "under the covers [at night], with the aid of a flashlight". Salinger was the literary editor of the class yearbook, Crossed Sabres. He also participated in the Glee Club, Aviation Club, French Club, and the Non-Commissioned Officers Club.
  Salinger's Valley Forge 201 file reveals that he was a "mediocre" student, and unlike the overachievement enjoyed by members of the Glass family about whom he wrote, his recorded IQ between 111 and 115 was slightly above average. He graduated in 1936. Salinger started his freshman year at New York University in 1936. He considered studying special education but dropped out the following spring. That fall, his father urged him to learn about the meat-importing business, and he went to work at a company in the Austrian city of Vienna and the Polish city of Bydgoszcz. Surprisingly, Salinger went willingly, but he was so disgusted by the slaughterhouses that he firmly decided to embark on a different career path. His disgust for the meat business and his rejection of his father most likely influenced his vegetarianism as an adult. He left Austria one month before it was annexed by Nazi Germany on March 12, 1938.
  In the fall of 1938, Salinger attended Ursinus College in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, and wrote a column called "skipped diploma," which included movie reviews. He dropped out after one semester. In 1939, Salinger attended the Columbia University School of General Studies in Manhattan, where he took a writing class taught by Whit Burnett, longtime editor of Story magazine. According to Burnett, Salinger did not distinguish himself until a few weeks before the end of the second semester, at which point "he suddenly came to life" and completed three stories. Burnett told Salinger that his stories were skillful and accomplished, accepting "The Young Folks," a vignette about several aimless youths, for publication in Story. Salinger's debut short story was published in the magazine's March–April 1940 issue. Burnett became Salinger's mentor, and they corresponded for several years.
caption: 1133 Park Avenue in Manhattan, where Salinger grew up
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