Which American author wrote The Catcher in the Rye?

J. D. Salinger wrote The Catcher in the Rye. The American author published the novel in 1951, making it his first and only full-length novel.

Salinger had been developing Holden Caulfield, the book's teenage narrator, through short stories before the novel appeared. Holden's distinctive voice—sarcastic, observant, and troubled—helped make the book one of the most recognizable works of twentieth-century American fiction.

A common mix-up is confusing Salinger with authors who also wrote major American coming-of-age or modernist novels, such as F. Scott Fitzgerald or John Steinbeck. Saul Bellow was another prominent American novelist, but he did not write this book. Salinger's other well-known works include Nine Stories and Franny and Zooey.

The Catcher in the Rye became especially influential because it presented adolescent alienation in unusually direct language. It has also frequently been challenged in schools, partly because of its profanity, sexual references, and Holden's rejection of adult conventions.