J.D. Salinger, acclaimed author of The Catcher in the Rye, reportedly has as many as 15 unpublished novels locked up in his New Hampshire home.

Salinger's last novel, Franny and Zooey, was published in 1961. He became a recluse soon afterwards, and has shunned the public eye for nearly 40 years.

The secret cache is apparently well known to friends of Salinger, but it only became public this weekend.

According to one man who lives near Salinger, the author said in 1978 that he had 15 or 16 completed novels at his home. Other friends have reported seeing a large safe piled high with novels, stories and papers.

Apparently much of Salinger's unpublished works revolve around the fictional Glass family, the focus of Franny and Zooey. In 1986, Salinger won a lawsuit preventing a collection of letters from being published. During that suit, Salinger was asked what he had been working on for the previous 20 years.

"Just a work of fiction," Salinger said in a deposition. "That's all. That's the only description I can really give it . . . It's almost impossible to define. I work with characters, and as they develop, I just go on from there."

Salinger, now 80, lives in the small town of Cornish, New Hampshire.