An instant New York Times bestseller, this "explosive biography"
(People) of one of the most beloved and mysterious figures of the
twentieth century is "as close as we'll ever get to being inside J.D.
Salinger's head" (Entertainment Weekly).
This "revealing" (The New York Times) and "engrossing" (The Wall
Street Journal) oral biography, "fascinating and unique" (The
Washington Post) and "an unmitigated success" (USA TODAY), has
redefined our understanding of one of the most mysterious figures of the
twentieth century.
In nine years of work on Salinger, and especially in the years since
the author's death, David Shields and Shane Salerno interviewed more
than 200 people on five continents, many of whom had previously refused
to go on the record about their relationship with Salinger. This oral
biography offers direct eyewitness accounts from Salinger's World War II
brothers-in-arms, his family members, his close friends, his lovers, his
classmates, his neighbors, his editors, his publishers, his New Yorker
colleagues, and people with whom he had relationships that were secret
even to his own family. Their intimate recollections are supported by
more that 175 photos (many never seen before), diaries, legal records,
and private documents that are woven throughout; in addition, appearing
here for the first time, are Salinger's "lost letters"--ranging from the
1940s to 2008, revealing his intimate views on love, literature, fame,
religion, war, and death, and providing a raw and revelatory
self-portrait.
The result is "unprecedented" (Associated Press), "genuinely valuable"
(Time), and "strips away the sheen of [Salinger's] exceptionalism,
trading in his genius for something much more real" (Los Angeles
Times). According to the Sunday Times of London, Salinger is "a
stupendous work...I predict with the utmost confidence that, after this,
the world will not need another Salinger biography."
