Beloved Author J.D. Salinger Dies at 91

By Amanda Pendolino on January 28th, 2010

jd-salinger-1 J.D. Salinger, the beloved and enigmatic author of “The Catcher in the Rye,” has died at the age of 91. The New York Times reports that Salinger’s literary representative, Harold Ober Associates, announced the author’s death, saying it was of natural causes. Salinger lived in Cornish, New Hampshire.

Salinger is best known for his novel “The Catcher in the Rye,” which was published in 1951 and remains on many reading lists today. Its angry, iconoclastic teenage protagonist, Holden Caulfield, is intense and poignant as he experiences the harsh realities of the world.

Salinger also published short stories about the Glass family and a collection of two long short stories titled “Franny and Zooey.” He had not published a new work since 1965, and lived in near-total isolation, ignoring the attention of the literary world and the media for many years.

In a statement, Salinger’s representatives said that “in keeping with his lifelong, uncompromising desire to protect and defend his privacy, there will be no service, and the family asks that people’s respect for him, his work and his privacy be extended to them, individually and collectively, during this time. Salinger had remarked that he was in this world but not of it. His body is gone but the family hopes that he is still with those he loves, whether they are religious or historical figures, personal friends or fictional characters.”

Salinger wrote in “Catcher in the Rye,”

“I was trying to feel some kind of good-by. I mean I’ve left schools and places I didn’t even know I was leaving them. I hate that. I don’t care if it’s a sad good-by or a bad good-by, but when I leave a place I like to know I’m leaving it. If you don’t you feel even worse.”