Salinger A Biography

J.D. Salinger was one of the twentieth century's greatest writers. He was also one of its most elusive. After making his mark on the American literary scene, Salinger retreated to a small town in New Hampshire where he hoped to hide his life away from the world. With dogged determination, however, journalist and biographer Paul Alexander captured Salinger's story in this, the only complete biography of Holden Caulfield's creator published to date. Using the archives at Princeton, Yale, Harvard, Columbia, NYU and the New York Public Library as well as research in New York and New Hampshire, Alexander has created a great biography of Salinger that's further enriched by interviews with some of the greatest literary figures of our time: George Plimpton, Gay Talese, Ian Hamilton, Harold Bloom, Roger Angell, A. Scott Berg, Robert Giroux, Ved Mehta, Gordon Lish and Tom Wolfe.

PAUL ALEXANDER is the author of many biographies, including Rough Magic, a biography of Sylvia Plath; Man of the People, a biography of John McCain; and Machiavelli's Shadow: The Rise and Fall of Karl Rove. His nonfiction has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Nation, New York Magazine, and The Daily Beast.