JD Salinger, 1/1/19 - 1/27/10

Yesterday news outlets around the world reported the passing of the great JD Salinger, best known for The Catcher in the Rye, a title that has become required reading whether in high school or just passing through adolescence.

A couple of items of note are the obituary from the New York Times, and this article from The Canadian Press about how locals in Cornish, NH fiercely protected the literary icon's privacy.

It's interesting to note how the attitudes of (or at least perception of) librarians towards challenging literature have changed, as the NY Times' piece notes that "not everyone, teachers and librarians especially, was sure what to make of [The Catcher in the Rye] . . . ."

With JD's passing comes speculation about what will happen to his long-suspected troves of unpublished material--and like some authors (and musicians) who have seemingly published more posthumously than during their time among the quick, will his unpublished works exceed his published ones?