Jerome David Salinger - RIP

Er schrieb nur einen einzigen Roman und der wurde zumindest in den 70er Jahren gleich Pflichtlektüre bei uns im Englischunterricht..."Der Fänger im Roggen" beinflusste bereits eine ganze Generation vor mir, war Bestseller und blieb Kultbuch. Weniger bekannt sind seine Kurzgeschichten, wie z. B. "Ein herrlicher Tag für Bananenfisch", mit dem seine Karriere eigentlich begann. Am 27.1. starb J.D.Salinger, und erst mit dieser Meldung im tagesschau newsletter fiel mir wieder ein, wie oft ich mich beim Ansehen des Covers gefragt habe, wofür denn wohl seine Initialen stehen und dass ich dem nie nachgegangen bin...-Just a single novel and it became a must for English literature classes, at least when I went to school in the 70ies..."The catcher in the Rye" influenced already a whole generation before me, was bestseller and remained cult book. Less known his short stories like " A perfect day for bananafish", with which his career in fact started. On 27 January, J.D.Salinger died, and it was just then, when I learned about his death that I remembered having never looked up his initials, something which came always into my mind when seeing the book cover... RIP, Jerome David Salinger! Here a small obituary from the New York Times...
"J.D. Salinger, the elusive and enigmatic author of “The Catcher in the Rye,” has died. He was 91 and lived in Cornish, N.H.

Mr. Salinger’s literary representative, Harold Ober Associates, announced the death, saying it was of natural causes.

Published in 1951, "The Catcher in the Rye" became Mr. Salinger’s most famous work with its distinctive depiction of its angry, iconoclastic teenage protagonist, Holden Caulfield. Mr. Salinger frequently dealt with the subject of precocious youth in his short stories of the Glass family, as well as "Fanny and Zooey", a collection of two long short stories. He had not published a new work since 1965, and lived in near-total isolation, having refused the attention of the literary world and the news media for decades.

In their statement, Mr. Salinger’s representatives said that “in keeping with his lifelong, uncompromising desire to protect and defend his privacy, there will be no service, and the family asks that people’s respect for him, his work and his privacy be extended to them, individually and collectively, during this time.”

The statement added: “Salinger had remarked that he was in this world but not of it. His body is gone but the family hopes that he is still with those he loves, whether they are religious or historical figures, personal friends or fictional characters.”

Please find full obituary about Salinger's life and work in the New York Times here

Sources and photo credits:
tagesschau.de/dt. (1), FAZ (3/dt)/16.06.2005, Bernd Hagemann (2)"ein herrlicher tag für bananenfisch"/29.01.2010