Posted Jan 28, 2010, 11:27 am
Reclusive author and literary legend J.D. Salinger died Wednesday at his Cornish, N.H. home. He was 91 years old.
Salinger died of natural causes, the author's son said in a statement released by Salinger's literary representative.
Salinger was most famous for "Catcher in the Rye." The book remains controversial to this day, and is often banned by school districts.
The hero of "Catcher," Holden Caulfield, became an iconic figure of mid-century anomie, and for better or worse was the role model of many a young American. Beatle John Lennon's assassin, Mark David Chapman, read and reread the novel and was arrested after the shooting with a dogeared copy in his possession.
Perhaps his greatest works were the annals of the fictional Glass family, portrayed in the books "Franny and Zooey," "Raise High the Roofbeams, Carpenters" and "Seymour: An Introduction." His collection "Nine Stories," and in particular "For Esme, with Love and Squalor" are considered by many critics some of the best short stories of the 20th century.
2 comments on this story
Six?!?
Very sad. “Franny and Zooey” was my Bildungsroman.