Jerome received high marks in grade school, but once he entered prep school, he was dropped out for

Though they all lived together, Salinger feels very differently about his children, and they, too feel very differently toward him. In her book, his daughter criticizes her father, recalling a story about how when she got pregnant, instead of celebrating and being happy that he was going to be a grandfather, Salinger told her that was disgusted and that he thought she should get an abortion. Salinger believed pregnancy was something dirty, and this was apparent during his ex-wife’s pregnancies, as he gave her a very hard time. His son however, adores his father, and the feeling is very mutual. In fact, even though Salinger is a strict organic vegetarian, he will eat pizza with his son when they go out. Both his son and daughter carry his artistic traits. Peggy is a published author, and Matthew is an actor.

In 1939, Salinger took a class on short story writing at Columbia University, taught by professor Whit Burnett, who was the editor and founder of Story Magazine, where J.D. later had short stories published. Salinger was drafted during World War II into the infantry that took part in the invasion of Normandy. During his time in Europe, Salinger was able to write short stories as well as meet Ernest Hemmingway. Although he later parodied and criticized Hemmingway, Salinger had a great appreciation for the author. Many speculate that the war greatly traumatized Salinger, and his daughter claims that he was likely one of the first U.S. soldiers to actually see what had been happening in the concentration camps. After four months of seeing first 75% of his platoon dying, and later 125% (the unit had continual replacements), Salinger checked himself into the hospital for “Section 8” psychiatric help. Salinger has never written about or publicly discussed any of his war experiences, though some of his fictional characters were in the army.

“A Perfect Day For Bananafish,” in which Seymour Glass yells at his wife for not knowing German so that she can read some of his books, kisses the foot of a little girl, and eventually commits suicide, is very similar in a lot of ways to traits seen in Salinger himself. He is very irrational and gets upset over pointless things, has a strange attraction to girls much too young for him, and is quite focused on suicide. In a manner of speaking, because of his adamant reclusive behavior, Salinger is slowly killing himself.

His third wife is a nurse thirty years younger than him, named Colleen. They still live together in Cornish, New Hampshire.

In 1953

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