(born 1919) Full name, Jerome David, Salinger is a reclusive American author, best known for Catcher in the Rye (1951), whose hero, Holden Caulfield, became a prototype for teenage rebellion and rejection of “phony” adults. The book has long been a lightning rod for fights over censorship in public schools, but still enjoys wide popularity among teenagers. Salinger also wrote other chronicles of the fictional Glass family including Franny and Zooey (1961) and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His self-imposed solitude was shattered in the 1990s by revelations of his former companion, Joyce Maynard.