Timeline:

1919 - 1940

1941 - 1943

1944 - 1945

1946 - 1950

1951 - 1959

1960 - 1965

Catcher

introduction
characters
chronology

The Glass Series

overview
franny & zooey
raise high & seymour
hapworth
glass family chronology

Don't ever tell anybody anything

Holden Caulfield

A Salinger Timeline

Spanning his Literary Career 1919   Jerome David Salinger is born at New York City's Nursery and Child’s Hospital on January 1, to Solomon and Miriam Jillich Salinger. A sister, Doris, had been born in Chicago, 1912. Salinger's father was regional manager for a meat and cheese import company and the son of Jewish immigrants from Russia. His mother, who had changed her name from Marie, had been born in Iowa of German and Irish ancestry. 1932-34   1932: The Salinger family moves to 1133 Park Avenue (between 90th & 91st Sts.). J.D. (nicknamed "Sonny") is enrolled in the McBurney School, a private high school on West 63rd Street, where he captains the fencing team and produces mediocre grades.. 1934:Enters Valley Forge Military Academy, Wayne, Pennsylvania (the obvious basis for Pency Prep.) Works on the school newspaper and yearbook "Crossed Sabers". 1936-37 1936: Graduates from Valley Forge Military Academy. Enrolls in New York University (Washington Square College). 1937: Due to poor grades, Salinger quits NYU before completing his second semesterm forcing him to travel to Europe and study his father's import business. 1938 Spends time working at a slaughterhouse in Bydgoszcz, Poland and is repulsed by the experience. Lives ten months in Vienna, Austria on the cusp of the Nazi anschluss. Returns home on March 16, begins a brief enrollment at Ursinus College, Pennsylvania, where he writes a column for the school newspaper, "The Skipped Diploma: Musings of a Social Soph" 1939 Attends two semesters of a short story writing course taught by Whit Burnett at Columbia University. Fitzgerald, Lardner, and Saroyan influence his writings. 1940 Salinger's first short story, "The Young Folks," is published in Whit Burnett's magazine, Story. "Go See Eddie" is published in the Kansas City Revue. In September, Salinger reports he is planning to begin "the novel" that will one day become The Catcher in the Rye. 1941 Top In February, Salinger takes a position on the entertainment staff of the M.S. Kungsholm, touring the Caribbean for nineteen days. Upon leaving the ship, Salinger attempts to join the army but is deferred due to a minor heart irregularity. During the summer, he begins a romantic relationship with Oona O'Neill, daughter of the playwright Eugene O'Neill. Hires the Harold Ober Agency as his literary agent (a relationship which continues to this day). Writes and sells "Slight Rebellion Off Madison" to The New Yorker, "The Hang of It" is published by Collier's. "Heart of a Broken Story" is published in Esquire.   1942 War with Japan and Germany. Salinger is drafted into the United States Army and attends Officers, First Sergeants, and Instructors School of Signal Corps in Ft. Monmouth, New Jersey. Applies for admission to Army Officer Candidate School but is sent to the Army Air Force Basic Flying School in Bainbridge, Georgia, where he serves as an aviation instructor. Writes "Last and Best of the Peter Pans." Sells "Paula" to Stag. "The Long Debut of Lois Taggett" is published in Story. "Personal Notes of an Infantryman" is published in Colliers. 1943 During the summer, Salinger is transferred to Nashville, Tennessee and promoted to Staff Sergeant. Re stationed to Patterson Field in Fairfield, Ohio and then to Fort Holabird, Maryland. At Fort Holabird, he becomes an agent of the Army Counter-Intelligence Corps. Writes "Both Parties Concerned," "Soft-Boiled Sergeant," "Elaine," and "Last Day of the Last Furlough." "The Varoni Brothers" is published in The Saturday Evening Post . 1944 In January, Salinger is shipped to Europe and stationed at Tiverton, England, where he continues Counter Intelligence training. He participates in the D-Day invasion of Nazi Europe, landing at Utah Beach with the 12th Infantry Regiment of the 4th Infantry Division on June 6. Fights with the 4th Infantry Division during the Battles for Normandy, of St. Lô , Mortain, Hurtgen Forest and the Bulge. He is among the first troops to enter Paris on the day of its liberation where he meets and befriends Ernest Hemingway. His short stories "Both Parties Concerned" and "Soft-Boiled Sergeant" are published in The Saturday Evening Post. "Once a Week Won't Kill You" is published by Story. Sells "Last Day of the Last Furlough" to The Saturday Evening Post (published in July), mentions in a letter to Hemingway that it refers to "the Kid" in his novel. Has written the first six chapters of The Catcher in the Rye or "about six Holden Caulfield stories". Continues work on the novel. Quits, then plans to finish the novel again in six months. Writes "The Magic Foxhole,""A Boy in France," and an "untitled piece". 1945 Takes part in the invasion and occupation of Germany, fighting through the Rhineland, Württemberg, and Bavaria. Encounters camps and prisoners of the Dachau Concentration Camp System. Final battle at Thankirchen, Wolfrathausen, May 1. War's end. Salinger remains in the Army for six more months. In July, he writes Hemingway of being hospitalized at Nuremberg, Germany for stress. In September, Salinger meets and marries Sylvia, a 26-year-old German-born opthomologist. He is honorably discharged in November but signs a civilian contract with the Defense Department as an Intelligence Agent stationed at Nuremburg Germany, where he serves with Detachment 970 during the Nuremberg Trials. Writes "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" Publishes "A Boy in France" in The Saturday Evening Post,"Elaine" in Story, "This Sandwich Has No Mayonnaise" in Esquire , "I'm Crazy" and "The Stranger" in Collier's. Top 1946 On May 10, Salinger returns to the United States with Sylvia who soon goes back to Europe and files for divorce. For a time, Salinger joins a trendy, somewhat bohemian crowd, frequenting Greenwich Village bars and cafes. Salinger breaks with Whit Burnett when the editor rescinds a promise to publish a Salinger collection. Finishes and submits original version of The Catcher in the Rye as a 90 page novelette. Dissatisfied, withdraws the book and begins to rework it. Writes "The Male Goodbye," "A Girl in 1941 with No Waist At All," and "The Inverted Forest." "Slight Rebellion Off Madison" is finally published by The New Yorker. 1947 Moves from Manhattan to Westchester County, NY and then to a barn studio in Stamford, Connecticut. Writes "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" (original draft completed in December, 1946) and submits it to The New Yorker in January. Takes the story back to be reworked. Begins "A Girl I Knew." "A Young Girl in 1941 with No Waist At All" is published in Mademoiselle and "The Inverted Forest" is published in a special issue of Cosmopolitan 1948-49 During these years, Salinger maintains a strong publishing relationship with The New Yorker and intensifies his studies of eastern religion and philosophy. 1948: Publishes the major short stories "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut," and "Just Before the War with the Eskimos" in The New Yorker. "Blue Melody" is published in Cosmopolitan and "A Girl I Knew" is published in Good Housekeeping. Signs a first-rejection contract with The New Yorker, affording him to move from Stamford to a rented house in Westport, Connecticut. Spends the summer at a lakeside lodge in Wisconsin where he writes "Down at the Dinghy." 1949: Salinger is invited to lecture at Sarah Lawrence College, Bronxville NY. Self-conscious of his display there, he resigns never again to promote himself in such a way. "The Laughing Man,"is published by The New Yorker and Harpers publishes "Down at the Dinghy". 1950 In January, the film version of "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut," My Foolish Heart, is released by Samuel Goldwyn, starring Susan Hayward and Dana Andrews. Salinger is horrified to see his work maligned by Hollywood. By summer, Salinger has completed The Catcher in the Rye. After his original publishers at Harcourt Brace request that he change it, Salinger withdraws the manuscript and sells it to Little, Brown and Company instead. "For Esmé-with Love and Squalor" is published in The New Yorker. The story is recognized and reprinted in Prize Stories of 1950: The O. Henry Awards. Salinger withdraws "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls" from Woman's Home Journal and Collier's which bought but never published the story. 1951 In May, Salinger travels to Great Britain to avoid the tumult of Catcher's publication. Tours England, Ireland and Scotland and becomes close with his British publisher, Jamie Hamilton. Returns to New York on July 11 and settles into an apartment on East 57th Street. The Catcher in the Rye is published on July 16. The novel quickly reaches Number 4 on The New York Times Bestseller list and is chosen for additional publication by the "Book of the Month Club." "Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes" published in The New Yorker. 1952-1953 Top 1952: Salinger named a "distinguished alumni" by Valley Forge Military Academy but is in Mexico when the award is given. Embraces the tenets of Vedantic faith as expressed in The Gospels of Sri Ramakrishna. The New Yorker rejects "De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period." Salinger publishes the story in London's World Review (May, 1952). 1953: On January 1, Salinger officially moves to Cornish, New Hampshire upon the purchase of ninety acres of hillside property and a desheveled cottage . "Teddy" is published in The New Yorker. The book, Nine Stories is published in April, becoming an instant bestseller. 1955 Salinger marries Claire Douglas, daughter of the British art critic Robert Langton Douglason, on February 17. The couple attempt to live the teachings of Swami Yogananda and become members of the Self Realization Fellowship. A daughter, Margaret Ann, is born on December 10. "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" and "Franny" are published in The New Yorker. 1957-59 1957: After initially rejecting the novella and being overruled by William Shawn, The New Yorker publishes "Zooey" in May. 1959: Story's Whit Burnett asks Salinger for permission to publish "A Young Man in a Suffed Shirt" and "The Daughter of the Late, Great Man" but Salinger declines. The New Yorker publishes "Seymour: An Introduction" in June, after Salinger struggled with the novella for eighteen months, falling ill several times in the process. In December, Salinger makes his only public statement on a social issue, defending the notions of penitence and probation in a letter to the editor of the New York Post. 1960 A son, Matthew, is born on February 13. Salinger breaks with his British publishers, Hamish Hamilton, over their presentation of For Esmé-with Love and Squalor and Other Stories. 1961 Salinger appears on the cover of Time magazine. Franny and Zooey is published in September. The book becomes Number 1 on The New York Times Bestsellers list and Salinger and his family are harassed by reporters.   1963-1964 Raise High the Roof beam, Carpenters and Seymour:An Introduction is published. The collection becomes the third best selling book of 1963. Salinger strengthens his friendship with New Yorker head editor William Shawn. In 1964, Shawn is named godfather for Peggy Salinger, replacing Salinger's friend, Judge Learned Hand. Salinger and Shawn are both named godfather for the adopted son of Shawn's mistress, Lillian Ross. Top 1965 Salinger's final release, "Hapworth 16, 1924," is published in The New Yorker and recieves a muted response from critics. Valley Forge Class Song Hide not thy tears on this last day Your sorrow has no shame: To march no more midst lines of gray, No longer play the game. Four years have passed in joyful ways Wouldst stay these old times dear? Then cherish now these fleeting days The few while you are here. The last parade, our hearts sink low: Before us we survey- Cadets to be, where we are now And soon will come their day. Though distant now, yet not so far, Their years are but a few. Aye, soon they'll know why misty are Our eyes at last review. The lights are dimmed, the bugle sounds The notes we'll ne'er forget. And now a group of smiling lads: We part with much regret. Goodbyes are said, we march ahead Success we go to find. Our forms are gone from Valley Forge Our hearts are left behind. J.D. Salinger, 1936 Salinger and Oona O'Neill Mrs. Matthau [Carol Marcus] said: "Remember the Salinger thing?" "Salinger?" "A Perfect Day for Bananafish. That Salinger." "Franny and Zooey." "Umh-huh. You don't remember about him?" Mrs Cooper [Gloria Vanderbilt] pondered, pouted; no, she didn't. "It was while we were still at Brearley," said Mrs. Matthau. "Before Oona [O'Neilll]met Orson. She had a mysterious beau, this Jewish boy with a Park Avenue mother, Jerry Salinger. He wanted to be a writer, and he wrote Oona letters ten pages long while he was overseas in the army. Sort of love-letter essays, very tender, tenderer than God. Which is a bit too tender. Oona used to read them to me, and when she asked what I thought, I said it seemed to me he must be a boy who cries very easily; but what she wanted to know was whether I thought he was brilliant and talented or really just silly, and I said both, he's both, and years later when I read Catcher in the Rye and realised the author was Oona's Jerry, I was still inclined to that opinion." "I never heard a strange story about Salinger," Mrs Cooper confided. "I have never heard anything about him that wasn't strange. He's certainly not your normal everyday Jewish boy from Park Avenue." Truman Capote. "La Cote Basque"   4th Infantry Division J.D. Salinger's location during the crucial years of World War II can be easily traced by following his Army unit, the famous 4th Infantry Division. Salinger joined the Division when they sailed from New York to final training in England on January 18 1944. Under the command of Brigadier General Theodore Roosevelt Jr, Salinger's division were amoung the first Allied troops to storm the beaches of Normandy at Utah Beach on D-Day (June 6). Seeing constant action along the way, the 4th Infantry were the first non-French troops to liberate Paris on August 25, 1944. On September 14, the 4th were the first Allied troops to enter Germany. There, in November, they fought the Battle of Hurtgen Forest, arguably the bloodiest battle of World War II to be fought on the Western Front. After Hurtgen, the 4th Infantry were embroiled in the defense of Luxemburg during the German offensive known as the Battle of the Bulge. After re-entering Germany and penetrating deep into Bavaria, the 4th Infantry - and Salinger as Counter Intelligence Agent especially - encountered and liberated major camps of the Dachau concentration camp system. In 1945, Salinger chose to remain with the military in Germany for an additional year. Working in counter-intelligence (interrogation and de-Nazification), he apparantly served in connection with the Nuremberg Trials. Salinger's long service in combat coupled with the revelations of Nazi crimes undoubtedly contributed to the "fatigue" for which he was hospitalized. By all accounts, Salinger consistantly served with distinction and genuine heroism in the face of unrelenting danger, earning no less than five battle stars. But true to Babe's oath in "Last Day of the Last Furlough" to "keep our mouths shut, once it's over, [and] never again to mention [the war] in any way", Salinger remains silent regarding the events of those terrible years. July, 1951 Jerome David Salinger was born in New York City on January 1, 1919. So far as the present population is concerned, there is a cleavage between those who have come to the city as adults and those who were born and raised there, for a New York childhood is a special experience. For one thing, the landmarks have a very different connotation. As a boy Jerry Salinger played on the steps of public buildings that a non-native would recognize immediately and that he never knew the names of. He rode his bicycle in Central Park. He fell into the Lagoon. Those almost apotheosized department stores, Macy's and Gimbel's, still mean to him the toy department at Christmas. Park Avenue means taking a cab to Grand Central at the beginning of vacation. William Maxwell   Top