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Slight Rebellion off Madison
- GenresShort Stories
Unknown Binding
First published December 21, 1946
About the author
J.D. Salinger
144 books16.8k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author by this name in the Goodreads database.
Works, most notably novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951), of American writer Jerome David Salinger often concern troubled, sensitive adolescents.
People well know this author for his reclusive nature. He published his last original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980. Reared in city of New York, Salinger began short stories in secondary school and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948, he published the critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in The New Yorker, his subsequent home magazine. He released an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield especially influenced adolescent readers. Widely read and controversial, sells a quarter-million copies a year.
The success led to public attention and scrutiny: reclusive, he published new work less frequently. He followed with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953), of a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961), and a collection of two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.
Afterward, Salinger struggled with unwanted attention, including a legal battle in the 1980s with biographer Ian Hamilton. In the late 1990s, Joyce Maynard, a close ex-lover, and Margaret Salinger, his daughter, wrote and released his memoirs. In 1996, a small publisher announced a deal with Salinger to publish "Hapworth 16, 1924" in book form, but the ensuing publicity indefinitely delayed the release.
Another writer used one of his characters, resulting in copyright infringement; he filed a lawsuit against this writer and afterward made headlines around the globe in June 2009. Salinger died of natural causes at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire.
Works, most notably novel The Catcher in the Rye (1951), of American writer Jerome David Salinger often concern troubled, sensitive adolescents.
People well know this author for his reclusive nature. He published his last original work in 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980. Reared in city of New York, Salinger began short stories in secondary school and published several stories in the early 1940s before serving in World War II. In 1948, he published the critically acclaimed story "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" in The New Yorker, his subsequent home magazine. He released an immediate popular success. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield especially influenced adolescent readers. Widely read and controversial, sells a quarter-million copies a year.
The success led to public attention and scrutiny: reclusive, he published new work less frequently. He followed with a short story collection, Nine Stories (1953), of a novella and a short story, Franny and Zooey (1961), and a collection of two novellas, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction (1963). His last published work, a novella entitled "Hapworth 16, 1924", appeared in The New Yorker on June 19, 1965.
Afterward, Salinger struggled with unwanted attention, including a legal battle in the 1980s with biographer Ian Hamilton. In the late 1990s, Joyce Maynard, a close ex-lover, and Margaret Salinger, his daughter, wrote and released his memoirs. In 1996, a small publisher announced a deal with Salinger to publish "Hapworth 16, 1924" in book form, but the ensuing publicity indefinitely delayed the release.
Another writer used one of his characters, resulting in copyright infringement; he filed a lawsuit against this writer and afterward made headlines around the globe in June 2009. Salinger died of natural causes at his home in Cornish, New Hampshire.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
January 15, 2019
My Holden.
My precious Holden Morrisey Caulfied.
My precious Holden Morrisey Caulfied.
April 25, 2025
when I say I could talk about holden caulfield for hours, I mean it
December 16, 2020
Pretty strange and not very good in my opinion but I'm glad I got it read. Not that 4 minutes was much of a strain on my day.
For one of the first appearances of Holden Caulfield he doesn't do half bad. I think Holden's still all there but it's very much a work in progress- The sparsity of the scenes just highlights how well the combination of scenes later on in Catcher in the Rye work so well. We have the ice skating, the Vermont speel, the Lunts, even ol Carl Luce, and so it was interesting to recognize these scenes and snippets of detail and dialogue and know what was to come later. But keeping in mind that this is a Catcher draft lets the reader kind of see the soul of Holden. Like here he is from the start, kind of thing.
However, the writing style threw me off. When I first started reading I thought it may have been a summary or something, as when you look for unfamiliar books online there's always the risk of just finding the wrong thing. But nah. It was just this very sparse, third person writing, though very different from the third person writing that I loved in Salinger's later stories.
You know what I like though? I like how nearly half the ratings are 5 stars. It kind of lets you know that all the people who bothered to go find this to read are those die hard Catcher in the Rye fans.
For one of the first appearances of Holden Caulfield he doesn't do half bad. I think Holden's still all there but it's very much a work in progress- The sparsity of the scenes just highlights how well the combination of scenes later on in Catcher in the Rye work so well. We have the ice skating, the Vermont speel, the Lunts, even ol Carl Luce, and so it was interesting to recognize these scenes and snippets of detail and dialogue and know what was to come later. But keeping in mind that this is a Catcher draft lets the reader kind of see the soul of Holden. Like here he is from the start, kind of thing.
However, the writing style threw me off. When I first started reading I thought it may have been a summary or something, as when you look for unfamiliar books online there's always the risk of just finding the wrong thing. But nah. It was just this very sparse, third person writing, though very different from the third person writing that I loved in Salinger's later stories.
You know what I like though? I like how nearly half the ratings are 5 stars. It kind of lets you know that all the people who bothered to go find this to read are those die hard Catcher in the Rye fans.
December 10, 2017
The first story J.D. Salinger ever published in The New Yorker was also a story that introduced readers to his most famous character, Holden Caulfield, long before the publication of The Catcher in the Rye. According to Paul Alexander's biography of Salinger, the editors of The New Yorker accepted "Slight Rebellion Off Madison" back in 1941, but delayed publishing it when the US entered World War II. The time just didn't feel right for a story about jaded, cynical youth. Eventually the war ended and the story appeared in the magazine on December 21, 1946. The Catcher in the Rye came out five years later, in July, 1951.
August 23, 2020
The debut of Holden Morrisey Caulfield. This short story serves as the perfect prologue to the absolute masterpiece, 'The Catcher in the Rye'. In this story, Holden starts to get tired of all the lousiness and phoniness of his world - but not yet disassociated from it. Published in 1946, this short story gives you the opportunity to take a peek at Holden's beautiful, bittersweet adolescent view of the world.
January 5, 2026
“Holden stood on the corner and waited for a Madison Avenue bus. It was a long wait.”
My Golden Boy. My Holden Morrisey Caulfield. I feel very maternal about this kid.
“Slight Rebellion Off Madison” is the first story J.D. Salinger ever published in The New Yorker in 1941 but delayed publishing it when the US entered World War II, according to Paul Alexander in his biography of Salinger. When the war ended, the story eventually appeared in the magazine on December 21, 1946. The Catcher in the Rye came out five years later, in July, 1951. This is the story that introduced readers to his most famous character for the first time, Holden Caulfield, long before the publication of Catcher.In this story, Holden Caulfield, “on vacation from Pencey Preparatory School for Boys,” meets up in New York City with Sally Hayes, and together they go to the movies, smoke in the lobby, drink, and dance together, complaining about the tedium of school, all the while dreaming of leaving the big city for Vermont and maybe getting married one day. Yes, if you remember that one chapter in Catcher, this draft made it there. Carl Luce, a character who later appeared in Catcher, also made a brief appearance.
Considering this is just the earlier draft, lower your expectations because it reads exactly like that. I'm rating it five stars because I really loved this book.
My Golden Boy. My Holden Morrisey Caulfield. I feel very maternal about this kid.
“Slight Rebellion Off Madison” is the first story J.D. Salinger ever published in The New Yorker in 1941 but delayed publishing it when the US entered World War II, according to Paul Alexander in his biography of Salinger. When the war ended, the story eventually appeared in the magazine on December 21, 1946. The Catcher in the Rye came out five years later, in July, 1951. This is the story that introduced readers to his most famous character for the first time, Holden Caulfield, long before the publication of Catcher.In this story, Holden Caulfield, “on vacation from Pencey Preparatory School for Boys,” meets up in New York City with Sally Hayes, and together they go to the movies, smoke in the lobby, drink, and dance together, complaining about the tedium of school, all the while dreaming of leaving the big city for Vermont and maybe getting married one day. Yes, if you remember that one chapter in Catcher, this draft made it there. Carl Luce, a character who later appeared in Catcher, also made a brief appearance.
Considering this is just the earlier draft, lower your expectations because it reads exactly like that. I'm rating it five stars because I really loved this book.
December 16, 2021
Slight Rebellion is a very Hemingway-like short story that is later reimagined as a chapter in The Catcher in the Rye. It focuses on Holden, who is jaded and dispirited by the world around him. He seeks an escape from society. He idealizes Sally, a normal girl, as his ticket to an exciting new reality by suggesting that they run away together. The idea is ludicrous, but Holden is desperate for something different than a conventional life. Interestingly, he is set off by such a small thing - after having a conventional date, he and Sally meet a presumably stuck-up guy named George for a brief conversation. He’s a phony guy, but Holden views him as a reflection of everything in society. It activates a switch in his head and he pursues this grandiose illusion of running away and starting over. Ultimately, Holden is beaten down by reality. His friend brushes him off and he drunkenly cries in the bathroom of a bar after desperately calling Sally at 2am and being rejected. The story ends with a sense of defeat and hopelessness.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 17, 2024
A rough version of what was to come with Catcher in the Rye, this gives fans of J. D. Salinger a glimpse of Holden Caulfield and Salinger’s writing style before his novel was polished and eventually published.
I believe I read this before in a high school English class to see how Salinger’s writing developed, and since forgot about it until now.
It was brief and easy to read. Worth reading once. Took me only a few minutes. It made me want to re-read Catcher again.
You can see the strength in Salinger’s ability to give a character a voice, albeit the lack of details and unstructured feeling from reading it.
I believe I read this before in a high school English class to see how Salinger’s writing developed, and since forgot about it until now.
It was brief and easy to read. Worth reading once. Took me only a few minutes. It made me want to re-read Catcher again.
You can see the strength in Salinger’s ability to give a character a voice, albeit the lack of details and unstructured feeling from reading it.
September 1, 2026
“Hey, Carl,” Holden said, “you’re one of these intellectual guys. Tell me something. Supposing you were fed up. Supposing you were going stark, staring mad. Supposing you wanted to quit school and everything and get the hell out of New York. What would you do?”
“Drink up,” Carl said. “The hell with that.”
“No, I’m serious,” Holden pleaded.
“You’ve always got a bug,” Carl said, and got up and left.
Holden went on drinking.
°🥂⋆.ೃ🍾࿔*:･
“Drink up,” Carl said. “The hell with that.”
“No, I’m serious,” Holden pleaded.
“You’ve always got a bug,” Carl said, and got up and left.
Holden went on drinking.
°🥂⋆.ೃ🍾࿔*:･
August 23, 2025
Holden Caulfield is a classic character but this short three page submission for the New Yorker isn’t really the Holden Caulfield we know from Catcher in the Rye. This is pretty raw version of Holden and forgettable as it was.
October 13, 2021
It was nice to read again about Holand, although I prefer the version of The Catcher in the rye it is very interesting to read the first ever version of Holand.
Read
October 15, 2021a very very interesting read due to the similarities that it bears to catcher in the rye
August 9, 2022
Poor Holdie. His GF won’t elope so he gets comically tanked, then teary.
September 14, 2022
A pipe-dream in the form of flash-fiction
Read
May 1, 2023In this story Holden cries because he told Sally he loves her aw
June 16, 2023
Its insane that this sparked one of the greatest American novels
August 9, 2024
really interesting draft of an iconic scene in catcher
March 27, 2025
The beginning of Holden Caulfield is fascinating. I really love him.
May 4, 2025
Very “prescient” commentary on wartime feelings.
February 25, 2026
gotta read catcher in the rye
November 13, 2020
A glimpse of Holden Caulfield, 5 years before The Catcher in the Rye was published. Who knew this New Yorker entry would be on its way into becoming a novel?
It's a snippet of one of Holden's escapades in the book. But in third-person perspective. Can't say I like it better. The transition of POV was done so favorably, to be honest.
It's a snippet of one of Holden's escapades in the book. But in third-person perspective. Can't say I like it better. The transition of POV was done so favorably, to be honest.
July 17, 2016
This was really enjoyable to read the first draft and the idea of Holden Caulfield.
This short story sketch really slightly the only novel by J. D. Salinger - The Catcher In The Rye, and sure, it's marvellous! I like reading one of my favourite part of the book (convo between Holden and Sally) in a different light. To see it in a new way.
The Catcher In The Rye is the only book I reread and always love it. I mostly get bored reading the same book again, but not with this one. With that book it's always different!
Holden had always meant world to me. He knew my thoughts, my feelings, he knew my mind. He will always be important for me, same with works about him!
This short story sketch really slightly the only novel by J. D. Salinger - The Catcher In The Rye, and sure, it's marvellous! I like reading one of my favourite part of the book (convo between Holden and Sally) in a different light. To see it in a new way.
The Catcher In The Rye is the only book I reread and always love it. I mostly get bored reading the same book again, but not with this one. With that book it's always different!
Holden had always meant world to me. He knew my thoughts, my feelings, he knew my mind. He will always be important for me, same with works about him!
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews