Salinger : A Biography

The first full-length account of the life of this most reclusive author is based on careful research, which includes both published sources and interviews with other literary figures, and connects Salinger's experiences with his work. J. D. Salinger Has Taken Every Precaution To Hide Details Of His Private Life. Now Salinger, A Biography Tells The Story Of America's Great Literary Recluse. He Was Not Always A Mystery. In The 1940s And 1950s Salinger Was A Successful And Prolific Writer Of American Short Fiction - The Quintessential New Yorker Writer. Then He Withdrew To A Cabin In New Hampshire Where He Practices Zen And Has Continued To Write - But Only For Himself. Why Is He In Hiding? Who Is He? Paul Alexander, A Journalist And Biographer, Describes Salinger The Human Being And Salinger The Icon. Alexander Has Based His Work On Newly Opened Archives And Personal Interviews With Over Forty Major Literary Figures, Including George Plimpton, Gay Talese, Ian Hamilton, Harold Bloom, Roger Angell, A. Scott Berg, Robert Giroux, Ved Mehta, Gordon Lish, And Tom Wolfe. In Salinger, A Biography, Alexander Tells The Story Of A Man Whose Fictional Creations Became As Real To Him As Friends, Family, And Lovers - A Man Who Chose, In Adolescence, To Stop His Life In A Freeze Frame And Who Has Lingered In That Fantasy World For A Half Century.--jacket. A Sighting -- Two Biographies -- Sonny -- The Young Folks -- Inventing Holden Caulfield -- Private Salinger -- Sylvia -- Seymour Glass, Etc. -- 1950 -- The Catcher In The Rye -- Nine Stories -- Claire -- The Glass Family -- Heroes And Villains -- Good-byes -- Joyce -- Theft, Rumor, And Innuendo -- Stalking Salinger -- Trials And Tribulations -- Ghosts In The Shadows -- Coda. Paul Alexander. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. J.D. Salinger was one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He was also one of its most elusive. After making his mark on the American literary scene, Salinger retreated to a small town in New Hampshire where he hoped to hide his life away from the world. With dogged determination, however, journalist and biographer Paul Alexander captured Salinger's story in this, the only complete biography of Holden Caulfield's creator published to date. Using the archives at Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, NYU and the New York Public Library as well as research in New York and New Hampshire, Alexander has created a great biography of Salinger that's further enriched by interviews with some of the greatest literary figures of our time: George Plimpton, Gay Talese, Ian Hamilton, Harold Bloom, Roger Angell, A. Scott Berg, Robert Giroux, Ved Mehta, Gordon Lish and Tom Wolfe.