J.D. Salinger

de bene esse: literally, of well-being, morally acceptable but subject to future validation or exception

“Anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all. Thousands of little kids, and nobody's around - nobody big, I mean - except me. And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start to go over the cliff - I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I do all day. I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all. I know it's crazy, but that's the only thing I'd really like to be.”

-  J.D. Salinger, born 1 January 1919.

American writer who won acclaim early in life for his 1951 novel, The Catcher in the Rye. His depiction of adolescent alienation and loss of innocence in the protagonist Holden Caulfield was influential, especially among adolescent readers. It remains widely read and controversial, selling around 250,000 copies a year.