Author J.D. Salinger who will be known forever as the author of 1951’s “The Catcher In The Rye” was born this day in 1919. J.D. Salinger wrote other books and short stories but “Catcher In The Rye” was one of the big books of the 20th century. It was controversial and it still sells 250,000 copies a year.

Salinger was a strange man. He didn’t publish anything after 1965 and gave his last interview in 1980. He became a recluse in New Hampshire where he died in 2010 at the age of 91. He was the Greta Garbo of literature.

When Mark David Chapman assassinated John Lennon he stood there with his copy of “The Catcher In The Rye” when he was arrested.