Jerome David Salinger was born on January 1, 1919 in New York, New York. Salinger was the only son of Sol Salinger and Marie Salinger. He had an older sister named Doris. Salinger happened to be an outstanding student in grade school. In spite of this, he was dropped from his Prep School because of his poor grades. Salinger then attended Valley Forge Military Academy. It was this experience that gave him the basis of his only novel, The Catcher in the Rye.

At Valley Forge Salinger began his writing career. He graduated from the academy and went to Ursinus University in Pennsylvania. It did not work out to well so he was forced to drop out only after one semester. In that one semester he took a short story course. This class was taught by the publisher of Story Magazine and Salinger later published some stories in the magazine.

Salinger's writing career was put on hold in 1942 when he was drafted into the army. He was a member of the Fourth Army division which took part in the D-Day invasion. Later in the war Salinger was injured and was moved to Germany for treatment.

Salinger came back to America in 1947. Later in 1955 Salinger got married to Claire Douglass. The two of them had two children Matthew and Peggy Salinger. Twelve years into their marriage Jerome and Claire got divorced.

Nowadays Salinger lives alone in a New Hampshire cottage. He refuses all interviews, and has yet to publish a novel since the Catcher in the Rye. The attention he brought upon himself with the novel has scared him away from writing other books. Today many rumors have been surfacing about a new book or a sequel to the Catcher in the Rye. The last time Salinger was in the news was 1972. A Yale student named Joyce Maynard wrote an article which Salinger had happen to read and he then he began to write letters back. These letters "declared them soul mates." Joyce moved in with him and their relationship lasted just under a year. In 1997, she wrote a book about her time with Salinger and then auctioned off his letters sent to her for over $150,000. The winning bidder claimed that Salinger would get the letters back.

Bibliography

http://library.thinkquest.org/data/salinger/jdshome.htm