King ‘now We’ll See If Salinger Left Behind A Literary Treasure Trove’

Horror author-turned-columnist STEPHEN KING has paid tribute to literary great J.D. SALINGER - even though he was never a big fan.

In a post on EW.com, the Carrie writer admits he’s intrigued by what the reclusive Salinger wrote and didn’t publish in the last three decades of his life.

King says, “I?m sorry to hear of his passing - the way you?d feel if you heard an eccentric, short-tempered, but often fascinating uncle had passed away.

“It is a milestone of sorts, because Salinger was the last of the great post-WWII American writers, and in (his The Catcher in the Rye anti-hero) Holden Caulfield - maybe the greatest American-boy narrator since (Tom Sawyer character) Huck Finn - he created an authentic Voice of the Age: funny, anxious, at odds with himself, and badly lost.

“Salinger?s death may answer one question that has intrigued readers, writers, and critics for nearly half a century - what literary trove of unpublished work may he have left behind? Much? Some? Or none? Salinger is gone, but if we?re lucky, he may have more to say, even so.”

Salinger passed away at his home in New Hampshire on Wednesday (27Jan10). He was 91.