An article in the Feb. 2011 issue of Vanity Fair looks at J. D. Salinger and his war experience. There’s also some background information 
on how he made his mark as a short story writer prior to being shipped off to fight in World War II. What I found inspiring and revealing was his passion for the written word. There was one point in the war when his unit came under attack and everyone ducked for cover except him. He continued to type away under a table. When I mentioned this story to my 15 yr. old grandson, he said, “I guess he was afraid he’d get killed before he finished his story.”
J. D. Salinger had a passion that couldn’t be contained. He turned his stories that were shaped during the war into his seminal book, The Catcher in the Rye. He used his experience to explore the questions of life and death though his character Holden Caulfield. Time and again, we are told “write what you know”. He did, and flew with his thoughts in a stream of consciousness that hadn’t been seen in a novel before. He taught us how to marry the science of writing with the art of expression to make a novel stand out. And especially, not to give up, regardless of the circumstances.
