Summary
Though it was the adolescent honesty and attitude of The Catcher in the Rye's Holden Caulfield that initially put J.D. Salinger on the American literary map, it is his short fiction, mostly initially published in The New Yorker magazine, that has added immeasurably to his growing reputation through the years. The well-known tales of Nine Stories and the longer stories and novellas, including Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, are discussed in this volume offering a rare critical overview of Salinger's shorter prose offerings. Scholar Harold Bloom introduces this book of critical essays, which comes complete with a chronology of Salinger's life, a bibliography, and an index for easy reference.
Specifications
Chronology. Bibliography. Index.
About the Author(s)
Harold Bloom is Sterling Professor of the Humanities at Yale University. Educated at Cornell and Yale universities, he is the author of 30 books, including Shelley's Mythmaking (1959), The Visionary Company (1961), Blake's Apocalypse (1963), Yeats (1970), A Map of Misreading (1975), Kabbalah and Criticism (1975), Agon: Toward a Theory of Revisionism (1982), The American Religion (1992), The Western Canon (1994), Omens of Millennium: The Gnosis of Angels, Dreams, and Resurrection (1996), and Shakespeare: The Invention of the Human (1998), a 1998 National Book Award finalist. The Anxiety of Influence (1973) sets forth Professor Bloom's provocative theory of the literary relationships between the great writers and their predecessors. His most recent books include How to Read and Why (2000), Genius: A Mosaic of One Hundred Exemplary Creative Minds (2002), Hamlet: Poem Unlimited (2003), Where Shall Wisdom Be Found? (2004), and Jesus and Yahweh: The Names Divine (2005). In addition, he is the author of hundreds of articles, reviews, and editorial introductions. In 1999, Professor Bloom received the prestigious American Academy of Arts and Letters Gold Medal for Criticism. He has also received the International Prize of Catalonia, the Alfonso Reyes Prize of Mexico, and the Hans Christian Andersen Bicentennial Prize of Denmark.