Catcher in the Rye published

1951

J. D. Salinger's novel about a prep-school dropout wandering New York, disgusted with phonies and grieving a dead brother, spoke to something post-war Americans had not yet named: adolescent alienation as cultural condition. Holden Caulfield became a permanent figure in American literature, a touchstone for every disaffected teenager, and eventually, disturbingly, an obsession in the minds of several famous murderers.