J.D. Salinger did not want these stories to be published, but now they've been anonymously leaked online

Three stories that legendary author J.D. Salinger did not want published have been leaked online. "The Ocean Full Of Bowling Balls", "Paula" and "Birthday Boy" were previously only available at university libraries, but after the anonymous leak, they were released as printed PDFs in a booklet containing all three titled "Three Stories."

"The Ocean Full Of Bowling Balls" is of particular interest because it is supposed to have been a of prequel to his most famous work, Catcher in the Rye. It was originally written for Harper's Bazaar, and has since been kept at the Princeton University. An agreement was allegedly made with Princeton to release the story on Jan. 27, 2060, 50 years after Salinger's death.

I've never read "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls": It's part of a collection of Salinger material at the Princeton University Library and available only to scholars who are supervised as they read" said Los Angeles Times book critic David L. Ulin. "I have read the other two stories, however, at the University of Texas' Ransom Center, and the versions of them in "Three Stories" are the real deal."

The user who distributed the scanned stories on the file-sharing site what.cd, wrote an anonymous message saying he or she would "confirm and, with that, take responsibility to the claim that these are accurate to the originals It took me many weeks of research to find that this book existed, and many more weeks to acquire it."

There seem to be mixed feelings about the leak. It goes against the requests of the reclusive author, but for some, it's worthwhile to be able to read some of his unpublished work, even if it was obtained without integrity.