J. D. Salinger Dies at 91
RSSBy Rocco Staino -- School Library Journal, 01/29/2010
J. D. Salinger, author of the iconic coming of age novel The Catcher in the Rye (Little Brown, 1951), died January 27 from natural causes at his hom
e in New Hampshire. He was 91.
The reclusive author had broken his hip in May and his health has been in decline since the beginning of the year.
In The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger created protagonist Holden Caulfield, one of the most famous teenage characters in literature. With more than 60 million copies sold worldwide, teenagers from all over identified with the novel, which details the two days in the life the 16-year-old Caulfield after he has been expelled from prep school. Confused and disillusioned, he searches for truth and rails against the "phoniness" of the adult world.
The novel has had a long history of censorship due to its language and sexual content. According to Banned Books: Suppressed on Social Grounds (Facts on File,1998) by Dawn B. Sova it was the most frequently banned book between 1966 and 1975.
In 1957 the Australian government confiscated a shipment of the book that was being presented by the U.S. ambassador as a gift. And in 1960, a teacher in Tulsa, OK, was fired for assigning the book to his eleventh grade English grade. He was later reinstated when the book was removed from the reading list.
Salinger is survived by his third wife, Colleen O'Neill, whom he married in the late 1980s, along with his son, daughter and three grandsons.
