RIP JD

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you’ll probably want to know is where I was born and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don’t feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth.

Thus opens one of the great novels of all time.


One of the most important American authors of the Post War period, and certainly the author with the greatest influence per novels published (one) during that period, passed away today at the age of 91 on his compound in New Hampshire. For a notorious recluse, J.D. Salinger certainly got around. Some important JD data:

Born in NYC
1-0 in cases before the Supreme Court
Dominated the pages of The New Yorker in the 1950s
Affair with a Yale College freshman at the tender age of 53
Hunter S. Thompson-like compound in New Hampshire
Speculation about at least two unpublished novels

Read the full NY Times obit here.