The Glass family is a group of fictional characters that have been featured in a number of J.D. Salinger's short stories. All but one of the Glass family stories were first published in The New Yorker; several of them have been collected and published in the volumes Nine Stories; Franny and Zooey; and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction. Jerome David Salinger (born January 1, 1919) is an American author best known for The Catcher in the Rye, a classic coming-of-age story that has enjoyed enduring popularity since its publication in 1951. ... The New Yorker is an American magazine that publishes reportage, criticism, essays, cartoons, poetry, and fiction. ... Nine Stories book cover Nine Stories (1953) is collection of short stories by American fiction writer J. D. Salinger. ... Franny and Zooey is a 1961 novel by J. D. Salinger, the author best known for The Catcher in the Rye. ...

Members

The members of the Glass family are listed here, from eldest to youngest:

• Bessie and Les Glass: Retired vaudeville performers and parents of the following seven children:

• Seymour Glass (1917-1948): The eldest son of Bessie and Les. Seymour is featured in "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters," "A Perfect Day for Bananafish," "Hapworth 16, 1924," and "Seymour: An Introduction." He is the author of the letter that comprises the story of "Hapworth" and is the main character in "Bananafish". Seymour commits suicide in "A Perfect Day for Bananafish". He marries Muriel in 1942.

• Buddy Glass (1919-Present): The protagonist in "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters," and the narrator of "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" and "Seymour: An Introduction." It is revealed in the latter that he wrote at least two stories collected in Nine Stories: "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "Teddy". It is also suggested in "Seymour: An Introduction" that Buddy wrote The Catcher in the Rye. Buddy is often considered to be Salinger's alter ego. The character lives in upstate New York and teaches at a women's college. Buddy was very close to Seymour before the latter committed suicide in 1948, and he narrates most of the Glass stories in his attempt to connect with his dead brother.

• Beatrice "Boo Boo" Glass (1921-Present): Married, mother of three children, Boo Boo appears centrally in "Down at the Dinghy," is mentioned in "Hapworth 16, 1924," and is often referenced in "Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters" as the "sea-faring" Glass sibling currently occupying the New York apartment where much of the story's action takes place. Boo Boo "modestly prefers to be referred to as a Tuckahoe homemaker."

• Walt Glass (1923-1946): American soldier killed in an accident in Occupied Japan shortly after World War II. He is described by his girlfriend in "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut,". He was also described in "Franny and Zooey" as being the only truly "lighthearted" son in the family.

• Waker Glass (1923-Present): A Roman Catholic monk, of the Carthusian order. Walt's surviving twin brother.

• Zachary Martin "Zooey" Glass (1930-Present): Title character of "Zooey," in which he is approximately 25 years old. He is an actor, and (according to Buddy) the most attractive of all the children. Boo Boo describes him as "the blue-eyed Jewish-Irish Mohican scout who died in your arms at the roulette table at Monte Carlo." He is characteristically misanthropic which he attributes to Seymour and Buddys' imposition of their college-age infatuation with Eastern mysticism on himself and Franny as children.

• Frances "Franny" Glass (1935-Present): Title character of "Franny," she is a college student and actress. In both "Franny" and "Zooey", she is depicted reading the book, The Way of a Pilgrim, which contributes to an emotional breakdown.

The children are all precocious, and in fact have all appeared on a fictional radio quiz show called It's a Wise Child. Wise Child has, according to Salinger's stories, sent all seven Glass children through college. Bessie Glass (née Gallagher) is a fictional character best known as a member of J. D. Salingers Glass family. ... Vaudeville is a style of multi-act theatre which flourished in North America from the 1880s through the 1920s. ... Seymour Glass is the oldest of the children in J. D. Salingers fictional Glass Family. ... Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters is the second in the Glass Family series written by J D Salinger. ... A Perfect Day for Bananafish is a well known short story written by J. D. Salinger. ... Hapworth 16, 1924 is the youngest of J.D. Salingers Glass Family stories, in the sense that the narrated events happen chronologically before all other Glass stories. ... Teddy is the last story in J.D. Salingers Nine Stories. ... The Catcher in the Rye is a novel by J. D. Salinger. ... Upstate New York is the region of New York State outside of the core of the New York metropolitan area. ... Down at The Dinghy is a short story by J. D. Salinger that was originally published in Harpers in April of 1949. ... At the end of the Second World War, Japan was occupied by the Allied Powers. ... Combatants Major Allied powers: United Kingdom Soviet Union United States Republic of China and others Major Axis powers: Nazi Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Harry Truman Chiang Kai-Shek Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tojo Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead... The story Uncle Wiggly in Connecticut by J.D. Salinger appears in a collection of short stories by the American author, entitled Nine Stories. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... A Carthusian Monastery in Jerez, Spain The Carthusian Order, also called the Order of St. ... Misanthropy is a general dislike of the human race. ... The Way of a Pilgrim is the English title of an 19th century anonymous Russian work, seemingly autobiographical, likely by an Athonite monk, detailing the narrators journey across the country while practicing the Jesus Prayer devoutly, with the help of a prayer rope, and studying the Philokalia. ...

The family is of Jewish-Irish heritage. Their father Les, is Jewish, and their mother Bessie is Irish.

The Glass family lives in New York City; all the children spent most of their childhood in an apartment on the Upper East Side. Nickname: Big Apple, City that never Sleeps image_skyline = Top_of_Rock_Cropped. ... The Upper East Side at Sunset The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. ...

Influences on other works

Some of the characters in the Wes Anderson movie The Royal Tenenbaums (2001) were purportedly modelled after the Glass family. It is interesting to note that Boo Boo is married to a Mr. Tannenbaum, as described in the story "Down at the Dinghy." Drawing of Wes Anderson Wesley Wales Anderson (born May 1, 1969) is an American Academy Award nominated writer, producer, and director of films and commercials. ... The Royal Tenenbaums is the 2001 comedy about three genius siblings who experience great success in youth, and even greater disappointment and failure after their eccentric father leaves them in their adolescent years. ...

The stories that make up the Glass Family chronicle were first published in the late 1940's and the 1950's. Their undercurrents of urban over-sophistication, eastern philosophy and longing for childlike naivte helped to seed the 1960's imagination.