When J. D. Salinger died on 27th January 2010 he had not published any fiction since 1965, yet his passing was a globally reported news story. This level of public interest supports Ian Hamilton’s contention that Salinger’s writing will “figure in any conventional account of the best works of our time” (Hamilton, 1998, 8), principally because of the enduring popularity of his only novel, The Catcher in the Rye. First published in July 1951, Catcher became one of the most-loved, critically acclaimed, controversial and best-selling American novels of the century. It proved far more popular than its author ever anticipated: it has been translated into more than thirty languages and is reported to have sold o…
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Citation: Graham, Sarah. "The Catcher in the Rye". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 August 2010 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=1361, accessed 07 October 2024.]