The American writer, after the published novel became world famous, Jerome Salinger is a classic of 20th century literature. Perhaps the resounding success contributed to the retreat of the writer in the 60s. The only interview that the author managed to take was comments on the publication of early stories published without the permission of the writer.
Facts from life
Jerome Salinger was born in Manhattan on the first day of 1919. The father of the future writer, Solomon Salinger, is a successful merchant of Jewish descent. Mother - Mary Djilik, who changed her name to Miriam and took her husband's surname.
Young People is the first story published in 1940. But the prose brought fame to the author: “A banana fish is well caught” (translation by Rita Wright-Kovaleva). The story describes the life of a fictional Glass family. Later, this prose was included in the collection of "Nine Stories."
In 1942, writers were drafted into the army. Jerome participated in the battles of the Ardennes and Normandy. Around the same years, the future prose writer began working on his landmark novel, The Catcher in the Rye.
After the war, Jerome Salinger continued to work on the book, simultaneously publishing in periodicals.
The last work published in the magazine in 1965 is “The Sixteenth Day of Hapworth 1924.” This does not mean that the prose writer did not work anymore: Salinger banned the intravital publication of his stories. Living in retreat, Jerome worked fruitfully. And only after death it became possible to publish his short stories.
The prose writer died on January 27, 2010.
"Over Abyss in the Rye"
The writer, who published 26 short stories, sometimes a little depressed and based on his own experiences, before the publication of his main book, is Jerome Salinger. "The Catcher in the Rye" - a novel that won first place in the list of best sellers of the 20th century. The novel, translated by 1961 in 12 countries, including the USSR. The novel, banned in American schools from the 60s to the 80s for calling young people to rebellion and anarchy, excessive rudeness of the protagonist and propaganda of debauchery (scene with a prostitute in a hotel) and drunkenness.
But the prohibitive actions led to the opposite effect: the work attracted more than repelled. As you know, the forbidden fruit is sweet. Now the novel is included in the required literature for American students. But there are attempts to restrict access to a work or to exclude it from the program now.
The skillful master of the American novel of the 20th century is Jerome Salinger. "The Catcher in the Rye" - a book with a scandalous reputation. Her admirers are John Hinckley, who attempted the life of Reagan, and Mark Chapman, the killer of John Lennon, who said in court that the call to shoot the musician was encrypted in the book.
After the publication of the novel, the writer became world famous.
A family
Jerome Salinger first married German Sylvia Welter. The writer met her in Germany, but American soldiers were forbidden to marry German women, and a prose writer took her to the United States. The marriage lasted less than a year: Sylvia shared Hitler’s views, and Salinger hated everything connected with the Nazis.
Perhaps the writer would not have married a German woman: before the war, he met with Una O'Neill (daughter of Eugene O'Neill, Nobel Prize winner in literature). But while the author was at war, the girl married Charlie Chaplin.
The second marriage of a prose writer lasted about ten years. Claire Douglas was 16 years younger than the writer. They got married when the girl was still in high school. Two children were born in the marriage: a daughter and a son.
In the house where the spouses lived, the author deliberately did not create any living conditions, explaining that this was useful for his Zen Buddhism classes and writing essays.
At 66, the writer divorced to marry Colin O'Neill, half his age younger than him.
Between the second and third marriages, the prose writer lived for about a year with Joyce Maynard, an 18-year-old journalist who published a serious article in the magazine, a kind of generational manifesto. Joyce and Jerome lived together for nine months, after which he kicked the girl out. In retaliation, she auctioned a love affair with a prose writer at an auction in 1999. The Salinger fan redeemed and returned the letters to the writer.
Future publications
The reclusive ascetic is Jerome Salinger. The stories of the prose writer are practically a reflection of the existence of the author himself. According to his children, the author left abundant unpublished manuscripts after his death. At the same time providing them with comments: red - “publication after my death without editing”, blue - “publication with editing” and other notes.
The New York author who has not graduated from any higher education institution is Jerome Salinger. Prose writer books are mainly his main novel and short stories, recognized throughout the world. Reading Salinger’s works, one involuntarily plunges into the world of adolescent confrontations with their ideals and the cruelty of the surrounding adult world.