J.D Salinger Dies at 91

J.D Salinger Dies at 91-author of The Catcher in the Rye, has died. Salinger died Wednesday of natural causes at his Cornish, N.H., home, his son said, according to The Associated Press. Born Jan. 1, 1919 in Manhattan, the son of a Jewish cheese salesman and an Irish-Scottish mother, Salinger grew up in the city before attending Valley Forge Military Academy at age 15, where he wrote stories at night under the covers. In 1940, he published his first story, "The Young Folks," about selfish young adults, in Whit Burnett's Story magazine after impressing Burnett in his Columbia University writing class. After publishing several more stories, he served in the Army from 1942-1946, during which he continued to write and submit stories.

Published in 1951, Catcher became one of the most influential novels in modern American literature for its disaffected tale of teenage angst, seen through the eyes of protagonist Holden Caulfield, the anti-hero who despised "phonies" in an adult world and subsequently became an icon of teen rebellion.

One of the stories, "Slight Rebellion Off Madison," published by The New Yorker in 1946, introduced the restless and skeptic Holden Caulfield, and became the basis for Catcher. The novel quickly became a bestseller, spending 30 weeks on The New York Times' bestseller list.
Salinger followed it up with Nine Stories, a collection of short stories, in 1953. Franny and Zooey, which was originally published in The New Yorker as a short story and a novella, hit shelves in 1961. His final book, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction, which combined two New Yorker stories, was published in 1963.