J.D. Salinger, the reclusive author of "The...

The world-famous writer, whose last story was published in 1965, was born into a New York merchant family in 1919 but angered his father by dropping out of university.

He began his literary career writing short stories for magazines in New York, with The Young Folks published in 1940. After serving in World War II, he returned to New York and wrote A Perfect Day for Bananafish in 1948.

But he achieved real fame with the publication of The Catcher in the Rye in 1951. The story of Holden Caulfield"s teenage dissatisfaction almost immediately became a bestseller, and two years later Salinger removed himself from public life, retreating to his house in Cornish, New Hampshire.

He has since assiduously protected his privacy, going all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court to prevent the publication of previously unpublished letters.

Salinger died on Wednesday of natural causes.

MOSCOW, January 28 (RIA Novosti)