NEW YORK, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- Three previously unpublished stories by the late U.S. author J.D. Salinger have been leaked online, BuzzFeed reported.
Salinger scholar Kenneth Slawenski confirmed for the website that "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls," "Paula" and "Birthday Boy" were penned by Salinger.
BuzzFeed said the works have been available to read at research libraries, but have never been published in print or online before this week.
The website quoted the leaker, whose name it did not report, as saying the stories were acquired through an eBay auction.
The reclusive author died of natural causes in 2010 at his home in Cornish, N.H. He was 91.
Published in 1951, his novel "Catcher in the Rye" made Salinger a major voice in American fiction.
After that, readers scrambled to read his works as they appeared in The New Yorker magazine, before their publication in book form. His collection, "Nine Stories," in 1953, was followed by "Franny and Zooey" in 1961, and "Raise High the Roofbeam, Carpenters" and "Seymour an Introduction" in 1962.
