J. D. Salinger began his career as a publishing fiction writer in1940 with the appearance of “The Young Folks” in Story and concluded it in 1965 with the publication of “Hapworth 16, 1924” in the New Yorker. The Catcher in the Rye (1951) remains Salinger’s masterwork. In the novel Holden Caulfield provides a vibrant account of “this madman stuff that happened to me around last Christmas just before I got pretty run-down and had to come out here and take it easy.” Holden’s comic and harrowing escapades have made him a cultural hero. This alienated teenager with a slash of gray hair seems more a confused loner than an iconoclastic rebel. Alternately brash and sentimental Holden hates “phonies,” longs for innocence and

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First published 17 September 2004

Citation: Wenke, John. "J. D. Salinger". The Literary Encyclopedia. 17 September 2004.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3915, accessed 9 February 2010.]