Literary masters : J. D. Salinger

Literary Masters is one series of the trio that makes up the Gale Study Guides to Great Literature (the others are Literary Masterpieces and Literary Topics). Each Literary Masters volume introduces a significant author and covers basic biographical information. J. D. Salinger, born in New York City, was a gifted actor in high school but was also a writer. Unsuccessful with a college curriculum, he focused on writing and after taking a creative writing course at Columbia University, he began to sell stories to magazines. Holden Caulfield, the protagonist of his novel, The Catcher in the Rye (1951), first makes his appearance in a 1941 story, "Slight Rebellion Off Madison", in The New Yorker Magazine.