j.d. salinger

As anyone who pays attention to the market can attest, valuation is a delicate dance. And as the recent decision to auction The Catcher in the Rye author's toilet demonstrates, this process is even more pronounced when the commodity is a commode.

It happens all the time: An author/musician/actor dies, and sales of his most famous book/album/film immediately go through the roof. In the case of J.D. Salinger's passing Thursday, we were able to quantify and track the "death effect" in real time thanks to the sales rank feature on Amazon.com...

J.D Salinger died Wednesday at 91. As tributes flow in, publishers still wonder why he stopped publishing more than 45 years ago -- and whether publishable manuscripts might be waiting in the wings.