( CNN ) -- Literary circles were abuzz after three previously unpublished short stories by American author J.D . Salinger showed up on the Internet this week . The reported works by the reclusive writer of `` The Catcher in the Rye '' appeared numerous places online , including upload sites Imgur and MediaFire . They were previously only available for academic study . The 41-page album is simply called `` Three Stories . '' It contains these offerings : `` The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls , '' `` Birthday Boy '' and `` Paula . '' So , could this be legit ? Los Angeles Times book critic David L. Ulin says yes . `` 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 , '' he said in the online edition of the paper . `` 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 . '' Another affirmation comes from Salinger scholar Kenneth Slawenski , author of `` J.D . Salinger : A Life , '' who talked with BuzzFeed . `` While I do quibble with the ethics ( or lack of ethics ) in posting the Salinger stories , they look to be true transcripts of the originals and match my own copies , '' Slawenski told BuzzFeed in an e-mail . Princeton had its own theories on how the stories could have made it to the public . `` The story is probably an unauthorized version transcribed longhand in our reading room , '' said Martin Mbugua , a Princeton spokesman . `` It 's also possible that it came from photocopies of the typescript probably made before the mid-1980s when we decided that we would no longer allow photo-duplication for any work by Salinger . '' But several reports point to a September auction on eBay of `` Three Stories UNPUBLISHED JD Salinger ( catcher in the rye ) First Edition '' which went for about $ 110 , as the source of the online material . The pages were scanned and uploaded , the reports suggest . A photo included with the listing says it was first printed in London in 1999 and identifies it as copy number six out of 25 numbered copies . Ironically , the page also says : `` The three stories in this book remain unpublished and locked by J. D. Salinger for publishing . '' Salinger was known to fiercely guard his writings and only allowed a relatively small number to be published before his death in 2010 at age 91 . Rare book sells for $ 14.2 million .
The previously unpublished stories appeared online this week . The stories are in the archives at Princeton and the University of Texas . In one story, a man who had been shot by police was told he would be charged with murder if he didn't confess to his crime. Salinger died in 2010 at age 91 .