Photo by: flickr.com

J.D. Salinger died last Friday at the age of 91. He is the famous author of the classic novel Catcher in the Rye, which is considered by many to be one of the best books of the 20th century. His other works consisted of Nine Stories, Franny and Zooey and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction.

Then, Salinger disappeared from the literary scene and retreated to a hermit-like life in New Hampshire.

There is speculation that Salinger continued to write through the years leaving behind him a trove of manuscripts that perhaps now may be posthumously published.

Fittingly, Salinger’s works were filled with idiosyncratic characters with flaws and often hopeless lives.  Pervasive motifs of depression and alienation were also popular in Salinger’s writing.

Salinger will always represent a cultural phenomenon of the 20th century as a writer who spurned the limelight despite his obvious talent and success.

Now in his death, the spotlight shines on him brighter than ever.

 

15 books to read before you die

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald

2. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley

3. Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

4. 1984 by George Orwell

5. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller

6. The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky 

7. Night by Elie Wiesel

8. Lord of the Flies by William Golding

9. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett

10. Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad

11. On the Road by Jack Kerouac

12. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

13. Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce

14. A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess

15. Steppenwolf by Hermann Hesse