Catcher in the Rye Author J.D. Salinger Dead at 91

Reclusive author shunned interviews and Hollywood, despite having profound impact on pop culture

J.D. Salinger probably wouldn't want you to read this.

The devoutly private author of The Catcher in the Rye, who denounced publishing, refused interviews and declined Hollywood's advances to turn his seminal novel of alienation, hunting caps and phonies into a movie, died Wednesday, it was revealed today. He was 91.

Salinger's signature—and only—novel was published in 1951. The story of Holden Caufield would go on to influence a library's worth of loner tales, and, more darkly, prove a touchstone for John Lennon assassin Mark David Chapman and would-be President Ronald Reagan assassin John Hinckley Jr.

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