But, there was a lot more to him than literary brilliance. Here are ten facts about the author to give further insight into the man that J.D. Salinger was.
He had a relationship with a 19-year-old when he was fifty-three
In 1972, Salinger started a relationship with Joyce Maynard who was nineteen at the time. The two exchanged letters and met during her freshman year at Yale. She moved into his house in Cornish, New Hampshire, and lived there for eight months. They ended their relationship over the issue of children. After they separated, Maynard wrote a memoir titled At Home in the World in the nineties that spoke about their relationship. Later that same year she sold off letters that Salinger had written to her. They were returned to the writer.
He worked on The Catcher in the Rye while fighting in WWII
He was drafted into service in 1942 and served for two years. During that time he worked on chapters of the novel. They were kept on his person throughout this period, even when he went into battle.
He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder
After his time serving in the Second World War, he suffered what was then considered to be a nervous breakdown in Nuremberg. Now, it is labeled as PTSD. Scholars often link Salinger’s experiences in the war to the way he crafted his characters in his stories and novel, especially Holden Caulfield in The Catcher in the Rye.
Salinger was involved in various legal battles
At one point he sued his own biographer, Ian Hamilton, to keep a book he didn’t like from being published. It made use of letters he wrote to friends and family. The court ruled that Hamilton could not use the letters. On another occasion, an Iranian film titled Pari was slated for release and blocked in the United States. It was an unauthorized, loose adaption of the two stories Franny and Zooey.
He hated the idea of A Catcher in the Rye movie
Despite receiving several offers to make the novel into a book, Salinger declined. He was willing to let something, possibly, happen after he died but had no desire whatsoever to see the results for himself.
The Catcher in the Rye is one of the most frequently banned books
Over the last fifty years, The Catcher in the Rye has been banned over and over again due to the use of swear words, sexual themes, and Holden’s broader state of mind and intent. There are references to suicide that some schools and governments have cited as inappropriate.
While in school he enjoyed acting
As a young man, his interest in the arts was slightly different. Rather than writing Salinger expressed love for acting while in school. He even signed his yearbook with the names of characters that he played.
The Catcher in the Rye is the only novel he published during his lifetime
It has been the source of Salinger’s fame for the last almost seventy years and has sold around seventy million copies.
Salinger met Ernest Hemingway more than once
The first time the two met was in Paris while Salinger was serving in the war. Salinger decided to seek him out and was even able to show him a copy of one of his recent stories. They met again in Germany in 1944. He was in a farmhouse that had been set up for war correspondents.
He explored numerous religions throughout his life
Although he was raised Jewish, Salinger researched other religions. These included Buddhism, Catholicism, Hinduism, and Christian Science. Although no one knows for sure which, if any, he stuck with, it is thought that Hinduism was especially impactful on his consideration of the world.
