In which U.S. state was author J. D. Salinger born?

J. D. Salinger was born in New York, specifically Manhattan, on January 1, 1919.

His birth name was Jerome David Salinger. He grew up in Manhattan and attended public schools before enrolling at the McBurney School, a private boys’ school on the Upper West Side. His New York upbringing helped shape the urban setting and teenage voice associated with his fiction.

Salinger later drew on New York locations in The Catcher in the Rye, including Central Park, Grand Central Terminal, Broadway, and the Museum of Natural History. A common mix-up is New Hampshire: Salinger moved there in 1953 and died in Cornish, New Hampshire, in 2010, but he was not born there. Pennsylvania is also linked to his life because he attended Valley Forge Military Academy in Wayne.