World War II

Early Life

Jerome David Salinger was born in New York City, New York, on New Year's Day, 1919. His mother, Marie (née Jillich), was born in Atlantic, Iowa, of Scottish, German and Irish descent.[3][9][10] His paternal grandfather, Simon, born in Lithuania, was at one time the rabbi for the Adath Jeshurun congregation in Louisville, Kentucky.[11] His father, Sol Salinger, sold kosher cheese.[12] Salinger's mother changed her name to Miriam and passed as Jewish. Salinger did not learn his mother was not Jewish until just after his bar mitzvah.[13] His only sibling was his older sister Doris (1911–2001).[14]

The young Salinger attended public schools on the West Side of Manhattan, then in 1932, the family moved to Park Avenue and Salinger was enrolled at the McBurney School, a nearby private school.[10] Being Jewish, Salinger had trouble fitting in at his new school environment and took measures to conform, such as calling himself Jerry.[15] His family called him Sonny.[16] At McBurney, he managed the fencing team, wrote for the school newspaper, and appeared in plays.[10] He "showed an innate talent for drama", though his father opposed the idea of J.D. becoming an actor.[17] Salinger was not a good student, had failing grades, and therefore was kicked out.

His parents enrolled him into Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne, Pennsylvania, where he graduated in 1936.[10] Though he had written for the school newspaper at McBurney, at Valley Forge Salinger began writing stories "under the covers [at night], with the aid of a flashlight."[18] At Valley Forge, Salinger was the literary editor of the class yearbook, Cross Sabres. He also participated in the Glee Club, Aviation Club, French Club, and the Non-Commissioned Officers Club.[19] Salinger's Valley Forge 201 file reveals that he was a "mediocre" student, and unlike the overachievement enjoyed by members of the Glass family he would go on to write about, his recordedIQ was far from that of a genius.[20] He started his freshman year at New York University in 1936, and considered studying special education,[21] but dropped out the following spring. That fall, his father urged him to learn about the meat-importing business and he went to work at a company in Vienna, Austria.[22]

He left Austria only a month before it was annexed by Nazi Germany on March 12, 1938. He attended Ursinus College in the fall of 1938 in Collegeville, Pennsylvania, during which time he wrote a column called "skipped diploma," which included movie reviews.[23] Salinger dropped out after one semester however.[10][16] In 1939, Salinger attended a Columbia University evening writing class taught by Whit Burnett, longtime editor of Story magazine. According to Burnett, Salinger did not distinguish himself until a few weeks before the end of the second semester, at which point "he suddenly came to life" and completed three stories. Burnett told Salinger that his stories were skillful and accomplished, and accepted "The Young Folks", a vignette about several aimless youths, for publication in Story. Salinger's debut short story was published in the magazine's March–April 1940 issue. Burnett became Salinger's mentor, and they corresponded for several years.

World War II

In 1941, Salinger started dating Oona O'Neill, daughter of the playwright Eugene O'Neill. Despite finding the debutante self-absorbed (he confided to a friend that "Little Oona's hopelessly in love with little Oona"), he called her often and wrote her long letters.[26] Their relationship ended when Oona began seeing Charlie Chaplin, whom she eventually married.[27] In late 1941, Salinger briefly worked on a Caribbean cruise ship, serving as an activity director and possibly as a performer.[28]

The same year, Salinger began submitting short stories to The New Yorker. Seven of Salinger's stories were rejected by the magazine that year, including "Lunch for Three", "Monologue for a Watery Highball", and "I Went to School with Adolf Hitler". In December 1941, however, it accepted "Slight Rebellion off Madison", a Manhattan-set story about a disaffected teenager named Holden Caulfield with "pre-war jitters".[29] When Japan carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor that month, the story was rendered "unpublishable"; it did not appear in the magazine until 1946.[29] In the spring of 1942, several months after the United States entered World War II, Salinger was drafted into the Army, where he saw combat with the 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.[28] He was active at Utah Beach on D-Day and in the Battle of the Bulge as well as the Huertgen Forest campaign.[30][31] During the campaign from Normandy into Germany, Salinger arranged to meet with Ernest Hemingway, a writer who had influenced him and was working as a war correspondent in Paris.[32] Salinger was impressed with Hemingway's friendliness and modesty, finding him more "soft" than his gruff public persona.[33] Hemingway was impressed by Salinger's writing, and remarked: "Jesus, he has a helluva talent."[3] The two writers began corresponding; Salinger wrote Hemingway in July 1946 that their talks were among his few positive memories of the war.[33] Salinger added that he was working on a play about Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of his story "Slight Rebellion off Madison", and hoped to play the part himself.[33]

Salinger was assigned to a counter-intelligence division, where he used his proficiency in French and German to interrogate prisoners of war.[34] He was also among the first soldiers to enter a liberated concentration camp.[34] Salinger earned the rank of Staff Sergeant[35] and served in five campaigns.[36] Salinger's experiences in the war affected him emotionally. He was hospitalized for a few weeks for combat stress reaction after Germany was defeated,[37][38] and he later told his daughter: "You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live."[39] Both of his biographers speculate that Salinger drew upon his wartime experiences in several stories,[40]such as "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor", which is narrated by a traumatized soldier. Salinger continued to write while serving in the army, and published several stories in slick magazines such as Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post. He also continued to submit stories to The New Yorker, but with little success; it rejected all of his submissions from 1944 to 1946, and in 1945 rejected a group of 15 poems.

Post-War
In 1941, Salinger started dating Oona O'Neill, daughter of the playwright Eugene O'Neill. Despite finding the debutante self-absorbed (he confided to a friend that "Little Oona's hopelessly in love with little Oona"), he called her often and wrote her long letters.[26] Their relationship ended when Oona began seeing Charlie Chaplin, whom she eventually married.[27] In late 1941, Salinger briefly worked on a Caribbean cruise ship, serving as an activity director and possibly as a performer.[28]

The same year, Salinger began submitting short stories to The New Yorker. Seven of Salinger's stories were rejected by the magazine that year, including "Lunch for Three", "Monologue for a Watery Highball", and "I Went to School with Adolf Hitler". In December 1941, however, it accepted "Slight Rebellion off Madison", a Manhattan-set story about a disaffected teenager named Holden Caulfield with "pre-war jitters".[29] When Japan carried out the attack on Pearl Harbor that month, the story was rendered "unpublishable"; it did not appear in the magazine until 1946.[29] In the spring of 1942, several months after the United States entered World War II, Salinger was drafted into the Army, where he saw combat with the 12th Infantry Regiment, 4th Infantry Division.[28] He was active at Utah Beach on D-Day and in the Battle of the Bulge as well as the Huertgen Forest campaign.[30][31] During the campaign from Normandy into Germany, Salinger arranged to meet with Ernest Hemingway, a writer who had influenced him and was working as a war correspondent in Paris.[32] Salinger was impressed with Hemingway's friendliness and modesty, finding him more "soft" than his gruff public persona.[33] Hemingway was impressed by Salinger's writing, and remarked: "Jesus, he has a helluva talent."[3] The two writers began corresponding; Salinger wrote Hemingway in July 1946 that their talks were among his few positive memories of the war.[33] Salinger added that he was working on a play about Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of his story "Slight Rebellion off Madison", and hoped to play the part himself.[33]

Salinger was assigned to a counter-intelligence division, where he used his proficiency in French and German to interrogate prisoners of war.[34] He was also among the first soldiers to enter a liberated concentration camp.[34] Salinger earned the rank of Staff Sergeant[35] and served in five campaigns.[36] Salinger's experiences in the war affected him emotionally. He was hospitalized for a few weeks for combat stress reaction after Germany was defeated,[37][38] and he later told his daughter: "You never really get the smell of burning flesh out of your nose entirely, no matter how long you live."[39] Both of his biographers speculate that Salinger drew upon his wartime experiences in several stories,[40]such as "For Esmé – with Love and Squalor", which is narrated by a traumatized soldier. Salinger continued to write while serving in the army, and published several stories in slick magazines such as Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post. He also continued to submit stories to The New Yorker, but with little success; it rejected all of his submissions from 1944 to 1946, and in 1945 rejected a group of 15 poems.

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