{"id":333,"date":"2011-04-17T14:42:35","date_gmt":"2011-04-17T21:42:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/?p=333"},"modified":"2012-03-26T11:05:49","modified_gmt":"2012-03-26T18:05:49","slug":"what-j-d-salinger-taught-us-about-writing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/what-j-d-salinger-taught-us-about-writing\/","title":{"rendered":"What J. D. Salinger taught us about writing"},"content":{"rendered":"

An article in the Feb. 2011 issue of Vanity Fair looks at J. D. Salinger and his war experience<\/a>. There’s also some background information \"\"<\/a>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.”<\/p>\n

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. <\/em>He used his experience to explore the questions of life and death though his character Holden Caulfield.\u00a0 Time and again, we are told\u00a0 “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.\u00a0 He taught us how to marry the science of writing with the art of expression to make a novel stand out.\u00a0 And especially, not to give up, regardless of the circumstances.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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… <\/p>","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4],"tags":[41,9,27,7,93,5],"class_list":["post-333","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-writing","tag-j-d-salinger","tag-novel","tag-stories","tag-story","tag-vanity-fair","tag-writing-2"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1LuVB-5n","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":638,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/a-whole-empire-walking\/","url_meta":{"origin":333,"position":0},"title":"A Whole Empire Walking","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"16 \u0421\u0435\u0440\u043f\u043d\u044f, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Since I was old enough to comprehend, my mother has bent my ear with stories of how awful it was in the old country, before she immigrated to Canada when she was 14.\u00a0 Although my mother is a born storyteller, she can only remember so far back. She also passed\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/08\/A-Whole-Empire-Walking.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":4521,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2019\/writing\/roads-east-and-south\/","url_meta":{"origin":333,"position":1},"title":"Stories on Roads East and South","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"9 \u0412\u0435\u0440\u0435\u0441\u043d\u044f, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Taking roads east and south this summer gave me the opportunity to spend time with family, act in a feature film, and contemplate my next steps. Nothing like a road trip to stimulate those writing juices and come up with new stories. Ontario and Quebec At the National Art Gallery\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"stories","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_7459.jpg?fit=640%2C429&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_7459.jpg?fit=640%2C429&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/IMG_7459.jpg?fit=640%2C429&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1102,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2012\/writing\/writing-family-history\/","url_meta":{"origin":333,"position":2},"title":"Writing Family History","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"5 \u0416\u043e\u0432\u0442\u043d\u044f, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I\u2019m back to working on my baba\u2019s \u00a0story, NO TIME FOR TEARS, which is essentially an immigrant\u2019s story. \u00a0It\u2019ll be published as a novel, as I\u2019ve had to do a lot of research to fill in the blanks. \u00a0Because she lived behind the Iron Curtain, in Eastern Europe, information has\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/P1090283-300x297.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6847,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2025\/writing\/folding-memories-into-story\/","url_meta":{"origin":333,"position":3},"title":"Folding Memories into Story","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"12 \u0427\u0435\u0440\u0432\u043d\u044f, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"Writing What You Know Ernest Hemingway, the wonderful author of great works such as\u00a0The Sun Also Rises\u00a0and\u00a0For Whom the Bell Tolls,\u00a0was a master of folding memories into story. After he had received another bout of shock treatments, he said to a friend, \u201cWhat is the sense of ruining my head\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Books"","block_context":{"text":"Books","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Folding memories into story","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCN4546b-2020_02_01-15_54_38-UTC.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCN4546b-2020_02_01-15_54_38-UTC.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCN4546b-2020_02_01-15_54_38-UTC.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCN4546b-2020_02_01-15_54_38-UTC.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/DSCN4546b-2020_02_01-15_54_38-UTC.jpeg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":140,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2011\/writing\/more-on-the-novel\/","url_meta":{"origin":333,"position":4},"title":"More on the The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"25 \u041b\u044e\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"In\u00a0 discussing the Stieg Larsson's novel, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, with a friend yesterday, I was reminded about why I like reading this book so much. She mentioned the author's mingling of social commentary with his story. I've always regarded Sweden as this sexually liberal country that was\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Life"","block_context":{"text":"Life","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/life\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1279,"url":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/2013\/writing\/intimate-stories\/","url_meta":{"origin":333,"position":5},"title":"Intimate Stories","author":"Diana Stevan","date":"18 \u041b\u044e\u0442\u043e\u0433\u043e, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Taking a break recently from my own writing, I've been giving considerable thought as to what makes a good book. In thinking of the classics and some recent books I\u2019ve read, the common thread seems to be the intimacy of their stories. But what makes a story intimate and therefore\u2026","rel":"","context":"\u0423 "Writing"","block_context":{"text":"Writing","link":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/category\/writing\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Cure For Death By Lightening","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.dianastevan.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/02\/Cure-For-Death-By-Lightening.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dianastevan.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}