'Catcher in the Rye' Author Dies

From CNN: J.D. Salinger, author of "The Catcher in the Rye" has died, according to his literary agent.

From a news release:

J.D. Salinger, author of the classic “The Catcher in the Rye,” has died at the age of 91 of natural causes.

Gaining almost as much notoriety for his reclusive nature as for literary work Salinger spent decades living in near isolation in his remote home in Cornish, New Hampshire. He had refused to give interviews for the past thirty years and hadn’t published a new piece of literature in nearly fifty years.

Despite Salinger’s desire to slip away from the public eye he remained a central figure in literature due in large part to a character he introduced in a short story entitled “Slight Rebellion off Madison.” That character, Holden Caulfield, would reappear in Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” and he quickly became the symbol of the teenage protagonist and rebellion.

While Salinger never intended for his most famous work to be embraced by teenagers the book has become a standard piece of literature in high school English classes.