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JD Salinger, author of The Catcher in the Rye, has died at the age of 91. The reclusive novelist died of natural causes at his home in New Hampshire, according to a statement from his son released by his literary agent.
According to the note sent out by his literary agency Harold Ober Associates Salinger died peacefully on 27th January after "a rather sudden decline after the new year". In keeping with his "life long, uncompromising desire to protect and defend his privacy, there will be no service", the note added. "He will be missed by the few he was close to every bit as much as by those readers who loved reading him."
Salinger's 2009 sales were £380,327 on 55,962 copies from Nielsen BookScan's Total Consumer Market. Since records began in 2001 sales for Salinger are £4.5m on just over 668,000 copies.
Sarah Weinman at Daily Finance asks the question many will be pondering over the next few weeks: will Salinger's manuscripts ever be published?
"What Salinger has written, at least by neighbor Jerry Burt's account a decade ago, is more than 15 manuscripts—all locked up in a vault. (In her memoir, Maynard believed at least two books were locked away) Salinger's literary representative, Phyllis Westberg of Harold Ober Associates, would not comment, and Salinger's third wife, Colleen O'Neill, could not be reached, but the interest in publishing any newly discovered works should reach a fever pitch shortly, especially if noted literary estate-scooper Andrew Wylie gets involved."
Catcher, we are reminded, has sold 60m copies—about 250,000 sell in the US annually—and it has never gone out of print since Little, Brown's first hardcover edition in 1951.