Jerome Salinger is a writer whose works have not lost their relevance

2024 Author: Leah Sherlock | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 05:25

American writer, after the published novel gained worldwide fame, Jerome Salinger - a classic of literature of the 20th century. Perhaps the resounding success contributed to the writer's seclusion in the 60s. The only interview we were able to get from the author was comments about the release of early stories published without the writer's permission.

Facts of 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 origin. Mother - Mary Jilik, 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: “The banana fish is well caught” (translated by Rita Wright-Kovaleva). The story describes the life of the fictional Glass family. Later, this prose was included in the collection "Nine Stories".

In 1942, the writer was drafted into the army. Jerome fought in the Ardennes and in Normandy. Around the same years, the future prose writer began to work on his epoch-making novel, The Catcher in the Rye.

After the war, Jerome Salinger continued to work on the book, simultaneously publishing in periodicals.

The last piece published in the magazine in 1965 is "Hapworth's Sixteenth Day 1924". This does not mean that the prose writer no longer worked: Salinger banned the lifetime publication of his stories. Living in seclusion, Jerome worked fruitfully. And only after his death it became possible to publish his novels.

Prose writer died on January 27, 2010.

The Catcher in the Rye

The writer who published 26 stories, at times a little depressing and based on his own experiences, before the publication of his main book, is Jerome Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye is a 1 bestseller novel of the 20th century. A novel translated by 1961 in 12 countries, including the USSR. A 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 (the scene with a prostitute in a hotel) and drunkenness.

But the prohibitive actions had the opposite effect: the work attracted more than it repelled. As you know, forbidden fruit is sweet. Now the novel is included in the required literature for American students. But there are still attempts to restrict access to the work or exclude it from the program.

Skillful master of the American novel of the 20th century - Jerome Salinger. "The Catcher in the Rye" is a book with a scandalous reputation. Her admirersJohn Hinckley, who made an attempt on Reagan's life, 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 world fame came to the writer.

Family

Jerome Salinger first married a German Sylvia Welter. The writer met her in Germany, but American soldiers were forbidden to marry German women, and the prose writer took her to the USA. The marriage lasted less than a year: Sylvia shared the views of Hitler, and Salinger hated everything connected with the Nazis.

Perhaps the writer would not have married a German woman: before the war, he met Oona 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 prose writer's second marriage 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 couple lived, the author specifically did not create any conditions for living, explaining that it is useful for his Zen studies and writing compositions.

At 66, the writer divorced to marry Colin O'Neill, half a century his junior.

Between his second and third marriage, the prose writer lived for about a year with Joyce Maynard, an 18-year-old journalist who published a serious article in the magazine, something like a generational manifesto. Joyce and Jerome lived together for nine months, after which he kicked the girl out. In retaliation, she put up for auction in 1999 a love letter fromprose writer. An admirer of Salinger bought and returned the letters to the writer.

Future publications

Reclusive writer leading an ascetic life - Jerome Salinger. The prose writer's stories are practically a reflection of the existence of the author himself. According to his children, the author left a lot of unpublished manuscripts after his death. At the same time, providing them with comments: red color - "edition after my death without editing", blue - "publication with editing" and other notes.

A New York-based author who never graduated from a higher education institution is Jerome Salinger. The prose writer's books are mainly his main novel and short stories with short stories recognized all over the world. Reading Salinger's works, one involuntarily plunges into the world of confrontation between teenagers with their ideals and the cruelty of the world around adults.