坎尼斯·斯拉文斯基（Kenneth Slawenski），全球最權威的塞林格研究專傢，他為塞林格經營DeadCaulfields網站已有十年的曆史，這個網站被公認為是最權威、最可靠的塞林格資訊網站，媒體上許多許多有關塞林格的報道都是從這裏引用材料。作者為瞭撰寫這本傳記，耗費瞭7年時間，親身調查和查閱圖書館文獻資料，走訪相關當事人，同時對塞林格的書信材料進行細緻分析，解開瞭塞林格生平中許多重要的謎團。

史國強教授，瀋陽師範大學外國語學院教授，碩士生導師，長期從事翻譯、教學工作。代錶譯著有：《世界服裝史》《蘇菲的選擇》《賽珍珠傳》《喜福會》《海明威評傳》《布什自傳》。

Amazon Best Books of the Month, January 2011: In the year since his death, we've heard much more about J.D. Salinger's reclusiveness and eccentricities, both real and exaggerated, than we have about the writing that made him famous in the first place. Kenneth Slawenski's Salinger: A Life avoids such scandalmongering in order to deliver a sensitive (but not fawning) portrait of Salinger the writer. Slawenski looks not only at Salinger's most famous works, but also finds a wealth of psychological insights in places like rejection letters and biographical statements. Not surprisingly, Salinger's life, and especially his service in World War II, provided much of the raw material for his stories. But Slawenski does much more than compare Salinger's biography to his literary output: he also shows how compromises, conflicts, and editorial intrigues shaped Salinger's works, even when he was at the peak of his career. The book has much less to say about Salinger's post-1960 retirement and self-seclusion, apart from the author's occasional foray into the public eye by way of a rare interview or court case. But Slawenski does this for good reason: Salinger: A Life seeks only to explain Salinger as most of us knew him, through his writing. As a result, both die-hard fans and those who last picked up Catcher in the Rye in high school will find it enlightening. --Darryl Campbell