What if Jerome David Salinger had decided to become a cheese and meat importer? Would we still have Catcher in the Rye? Would we still have “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” or “For Esme with Love and Squalor?”

These questions may seem out of left field, but they came to mind after watching the Salinger biopic. The film briefly mentions Salinger’s rebellion against his father, who advised him to join the meat and cheese import industry. As someone who has an obsession with cheese and a short history as a cheesemonger, I found this to be one of the most fascinating details of the film — though it did not receive the elaboration it deserved.

I found the richest information on the subject in Kenneth Slawenski’s 2010 biography, J.D. Salinger: A Life. After young Jerry flunked most of his classes and dropped out of New York University, his father Solomon thought it practical to involve his son in what he hoped to make a family cheese and meat empire. After all, the import business had treated Sol well. He had turned to J.S. Hoffman & Company, an importer of not-so-kosher European cheeses and meats, after his previous job at a movie theatre failed him. The meats and cheeses of his new job were sold under the name Hofco in the United States. Sol was quickly promoted to general manager of Hoffman’s New York division and took a great deal of pride as the manager of a cheese factory. He only wished the same for his son Jerry. But Slawenski explains:

... Jerry, of course, was in no way inclined to follow in his father’s footsteps, so Sol half sweetened, half disguised the offer. After informing his son that his "formal education was formally over." Sol "unelaborately" presented him with the opportunity to travel to Europe under the guise of refining his French and German. Hoping that his son would develop an interest in the import business along the way, Sol arranged for him to travel to Poland and Austria as a translator for a Hofco business partner, in all likelihood a ham exporter named Oskar Robinson, one of the richest men in Poland and known throughout Europe as "The Bacon King." Salinger agreed. In reality, the choice was not his to make. Whatever options he had once had in the matter had been extinguished by his failing grades.