Goodbye, Mr. Salinger!

J. D. Salinger, one of the most influential figures of the 20th century and author of the acclaimed novel "The Catcher in the Rye," died Wednesday, January 27, 2010 of natural causes in his home in Cornish, NH. He was 91 years old.

Salinger left New York City in 1953 largely due to the success of "Catcher" which was published in 1951. The book's instant success and public scrutiny sent Salinger over the edge and in 1953 he moved to the rural town of Cornish, New Hampshire where he remained in near total seclusion until his death. The local residents helped to shield him from the unwanted attention.

In the late 1930's, Salinger fell in love with Oona O'Neill, only daughter of the Nobel and Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Eugene O'Neill. He wrote to her almost daily. He was devastated when she later married the much older Charlie Chaplin. Salinger had three wives, and two children from his second wife Claire.

He was indirectly thrust back into the public eye when, on December 8, 1980, Mark David Chapman shot and killed John Lennon at the entrance of the Dakota in New York City. Chapman was holding a copy of Salinger's "The Catcher in the Rye" when police arrived at the scene. Chapman had inscribed the following on the front inside cover, "To Holden Caulfield. From Holden Caufield. This is my statement." Chapman later asserted that his life paralled Holden's, the main character in the book.

Some of J.D. Salinger's other, lesser known works included Franny and Zooey, Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, Seymour: An Introduction, and Hapworth 16, 1924.

Throughout his long, reclusive life he struggled with fame and recognition but in death he can finally find peace. So goodbye, Mr. Salinger, you will be missed, for the world has lost a literary giant!