JD Salinger: The 'Garbo of Letters'

How to sum up the life of JD Salinger in a paragraph? Here's a sampling coming in from the wires:

• Kyle Anderson, MTV: He's "the reclusive genius who crafted one of the most iconic and important pieces of youth fiction."
• Charles McGrath, New York Times: "JD Salinger, who was thought at one time to be the most important American writer to emerge since World War II but who then turned his back on success and adulation, becoming the Garbo of letters, famous for not wanting to be famous, died Wednesday at his home in Cornish, N.H., where he had lived in seclusion for more than 50 years. He was 91."

• Jesse Kornbluth, Huffington Post: "'The greatest mind ever to stay in prep school,' Norman Mailer said of him, and for a lot of people, that's pretty much the line on Salinger."
• Marjorie Kehe, Christian Science Monitor: "If you've been to high school in the US in the past 50 years, then you know his book. JD Salinger was not as prolific as many authors, but few could even dream of being as influential."

(More JD Salinger stories.)