1919-2010

Analyzes six of J.D. Salinger's short stories; includes plot summaries, biographical information, critical essays, and discussions of the stories' themes and ideas.

A collection of critical essays discussing J.D. Sallinger's The catcher in the rye.

Literary Masterpieces is one series of the trio that makes up the Gale Study Guides to Great Literature (the others are Literary Topics and Literary Masters). Each Literary Masterpieces volume chooses a book by one of the authors covered in Literary Masters and offers a discussion of themes, characters, comparisons with social events of the era when the book was written and a critical analysis. The Catcher in the Rye was published in 1951 when J. D. Salinger had already achieved commercial success and critical acclaim as a short-story writer. The ultimate troubled teenage story is told by seventeen-year-old Holden Caulfield who has just flunked out of his third prep school. This novel spells out everything that has ever troubled a teenager about the adult world during any period in history---hypocrisy, insincerity, lack of compassion, lack of respect for everything, and the importance of material possessions over people.

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.

Examines the life of the reclusive author of "Catcher in the Rye, " including his encounters with celebrities, his love life, his devotion to Eastern religion, and his conflicted relationship with his success.