JD Salinger's 15 unpublished novels hidden in safe

London, Jan 30 (ANI): At least 15 unpublished novels of late American author JD Salinger are locked behind the thick steel door of a safe which have never been read by anyone.

Speculations are mounting over the fate of the author's secret cache, after he passed way this week.

While it is said that Salinger wanted the books to be published after his death, others have hinted he may have ordered that they should all be destroyed, reports the Mirror.

In his last interview, for a high school newspaper in 1980, he said: "I love to write and I assure you I write regularly. But I write for myself, for my own pleasure. And I want to be left alone to do it."

In 1999, one of his neighbours, Jerry Burt, described a huge vault in Salinger's home where his new books are rumoured to be kept.

"I was in the room when it was open," he said.

"That's where he kept his manuscripts. He told me there were about 15 or 16 books finished but that he didn't know if they would be published," he added.

Meanwhile, tributes are pouring in for the 'The Catcher in the Rye' writer, who died of natural causes on January 28.

Horror novelist Stephen King said it felt like "an eccentric, short-tempered, but often fascinating uncle had passed away". (ANI)