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J.D. SalingerWelcome to a thorough report on the life of Jerome David Salinger. It will outline his life from birth to the present. It will also discuss some of his better known literary works. Information about his early life, and family, schooling, and present condition can also be found within.
Jerome David Salinger, better know as J. D. Salinger, Was born in New York City, on the days of January 1, 1919. His father was Sol Salinger, and his mother, Miriam Jillich. His mother was Scotch-Irish and changed her name from Marie, to Miriam to fit better into her new family. Sol Salinger's father was an Orthodox Judaism rabbi, born in Cleveland, Ohio, and abandoned the faith to become a ham importer. His sister, Doris, was eight years older than him, and played a key part several of Salinger's later characters.
Following the role of a later character Holden Caulfield, Salinger started in a public grammar school, then enrolled in McBurney School, a private school in Manhattan, along with several others in the area. Young Salinger did well in school, but his weakness was in arithmetic. Salinger showed an early interest in drama, voted most popular actor at a 1930 summer camp in Harrison, Maine. Our subject later belonged to the Valley Forge Military Academy Glee Club, and Mask and Spur (a dramatic organization).
In 1934 Salinger enrolled in Valley Forge Military Academy. There his IQ was tested at 115 points, an above average score for his age. Salinger scored well in his classes, averaging a B in his studies. Our author found a place for himself as a literary editor for the academy yearbook his senior year. "While it cannot how much was contributed anonymously to this book, Salinger signed a three-stanza poetic tribute that has since been set to music and is still sung by the cadets at their last formation before graduation" (French 22). Working under his sheets by flashlight, Salinger began writing short stories during this time. Salinger graduated from Valley Forge Military Academy in June of 1936.
After his graduation he attended a summer session at New York University, the travels briefly to Vienna, and Poland with his father while learning the ham importing business. Salinger never took over his father's business, but did manage to learn perfect his German speaking skills.
Autumn of 1938, Salinger enrolled in Ursinus College. For the following nine weeks he wrote a column in the local weekly newspaper. Salinger's first publication was "The Young Folks," which was printed in Story in March of 1940. This evidentially got some attention to Salinger, because later the next year, Collier's, Esquire, and New Yorker all wanted a piece too. Salinger had finally reached the well-paying mass magazines.
Then in 1941, he wrote a letter showing his desire to join the military to Milton G. Baker, an adjutant at Valley...
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