Woman may be last remaining heir for Lamont Buchanan.
A woman has come forward, who claims to be an aunt of the late Lamont Buchanan who may have been the inspiration for fictional character Holden Caulfield, according to the Daily Mail in “California woman claims she is only living heir to $15million fortune of writer who ‘served as inspiration for J. D. Salinger’s Holden Caulfield character in Catcher in the Rye’.”
A few years ago, an elderly woman claimed that when she was 18, Buchanan, a reclusive writer and magazine editor, set up an interview for her with J.D. Salinger before he became famous. She said that during the interview Salinger told her that Buchanan was, in part, the inspiration for Holden Caulfield, the iconic protagonist of the Catcher in the Rye.
Two years ago, Buchanan passed away with an estate worth about $15 million, although it is not known how he got that much money.
He did not have a will or any known living relatives, so the assets are currently being held by the City of New York.
It is not yet known whether the woman’s claim to be the last living relative of the possible inspiration for Holden Caulfield is true.
Buchanan does have other relatives, but they are relatives by marriage and do not count for intestate succession purposes in New York.
