The Passing of a Great Author

Just yesterday, I was advised of the news that J.D. Salinger has passed away at the grand old age of 91. This man had written 'Catcher In The Rye' and published three books of short stories. Jerome David Salinger was born in 1919, brought up in New York, studied at New York University and Columbia. Later, he took part in WWII as a soldier. Margaret Salinger, his daughter, is currently working with a biographer on book about his life which will describe her difficult life with her father.

I've been looking around on the net, and today found out that J.D. Salinger had fifteen hidden unpublished new novels hidden in a safe he had written. It had been a very long time since Salinger had given his last interview - 1980 in fact - and he had been writing ever since; and before then as well. He said that he had been 'to have furiously bashed away at his typewriter' and has been doing this for the last 40 years. Almost nothing is known about the author’s life since he retreated into self-imposed seclusion in 1953, in the tiny village of Cornish, New Hampshire.

Tributes to the legendary author poured in yesterday after his son, actor Matt Salinger, released a short statement that his father had died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday night. Horror novelist Stephen King said it felt like “an eccentric, short-tempered, but often fascinating uncle had passed away” is one such fellow writer who gave his condolences publicly on the net (and I read the whole article as well and found it touching; even though King doesn't read Salinger's work, he does respect him as a fellow writer).

What will happen to Salinger's unpublished works is yet to be seen. Will they be published posthumously or will they be destroyed? Fans of the the writer haven't been told; and this has interested and distressed his loyal fans. We will have to wait and see what happens.