Author J. D. Salinger Dies

J. D. Salinger died on January 27, 2010. Photo courtesy Flickr user bbnick42.

The Catcher in the Rye author dies of natural causes at 91.

J. D. Salinger, one of the most controversial authors of our time, has just died - this according to a breaking report.

People.com has the report that J. D. Salinger passed away on Wednesday, January 27 at his New Hampshire home. Salinger was known and acclaimed for his 1951 novel The Catcher in the Rye, but his personal life was often regarded by the publishing industry and the public as suspect.

Salinger was the son of a Scottish-Irish mother and Polish Jewish father. Before he left his home in New York City to serve in World War II in 1942, Salinger had begun penning short works for publication, and upon his return from the War, he wrote The Catcher in the Rye. The novel was criticized for its explicit content but hailed for its authentic narrative, and Salinger once admitted that he'd based the protagonist on his own teenage experiences: "My boyhood was very much the same as that of the boy in the book....," Salinger has been quoted as having said. "[I]t was a great relief telling people about it."

In 1961 at age 53, Salinger began a relationship with 18-year-old Joyce Maynard (now a famous writer). She dropped out of school to be with him and has stated that he turned his back on her for no reason (he contended that Maynard wanted children, but Salinger felt he was too old). In 1999, Maynard put up for auction love letters that Salinger had written to her. Software developer Peter Norton bought the letters for $156,000 and said he intended to return them to Salinger.

J. D. Salinger was married three times and had two children, Margaret and Matt, with second wife Claire Douglas. In 2000 Douglas published a memoir about Salinger called Dream Catcher. The year prior, Joyce Maynard had published a highly noted memoir about Salinger as well, called At Home in the World.

The same day J. D. Salinger died, author Howard Zinn passed away as well. Zinn wrote a book on which the star-studded documentary The People's History was based. The doc featured Bruce Springsteen, Morgan Freeman and Viggo Mortensen.