JD Salinger Dead at 91

JD Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero, and fugitive from fame whose The Catcher in the Rye shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91. His death could lead to the publication of some of the writing he has been working on since he stopped publishing in the 1960s. Salinger has spent decades in self-imposed isolation in Cornish, NH, where, rumor has it, he has written at least 15 unpublished books.

"I love to write and I assure you I write regularly," Salinger said in a brief interview with the Baton Rouge (La.) Advocate in 1980. "But I write for myself, for my own pleasure. And I want to be left alone to do it." Salinger is said to have marked some of his manuscripts for posthumous publication. Though none of Salinger's other books achieved Catcher's fame, they are still widely read and for the most part critically acclaimed. (More JD Salinger stories.)