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RIP J.D. Salinger
By
Jen Carlson
Published Jan 28, 2010
Modified Jan 28, 2010
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By
Jen Carlson
Published Jan 28, 2010
Modified Jan 28, 2010
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Notoriously reclusive author J.D. Salinger has died at age 91 in New Hampshire, where he had been living since 1953. The author's son said in a statement from Salinger's literary representative that he died of natural causes at his home in Cornish, where he had isolated himself from most of the world.
In 1974, in a rare interview given to The New York Times, he said: "I love to write. But I write just for myself and my own pleasure." In her memoir, his daughter Margaret Salinger noted that he did keep writing, and last year The Guardian reported that it was rumored he had "produced hundreds of short stories, and perhaps scores of novels over the past however-many decades." He had allegedly set up a detailed filing system for his unpublished manuscripts: "A red mark meant, if I die before I finish my work, publish this 'as is,' blue meant publish but edit first, and so on."
UPDATE: Salinger’s representatives said that “in keeping with his lifelong, uncompromising desire to protect and defend his privacy, there will be no service." And the NY Times has now published their lengthy obituary for the author.
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Jen Carlson
Jen Carlson is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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