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Three previously unpublished and closely guarded J.D. Salinger stories appear to have been leaked online today for the first time.

It's hard to determine the origin of the "book" pictured in the photos that were leaked onto invite-only bittorrent website what.CD today (and later reposted on Reddit) — the ISBN doesn't lead anywhere, and a book of these three stories was certainly never printed legally.

The first story is "The Ocean Full of Bowling Balls," widely thought of as Salinger's greatest unpublished work and is a prequel of sorts to the author's most popular book, Catcher In The Rye.

The short story has been available to read at the Princeton library, under supervision, in a special reading room. PJ Vogt, a producer at On The Media, read the Princeton manuscript a few years ago and is fairly certain this is the same story. In an email tonight, he wrote "I definitely remember that first line: 'His shoes turned up.' And I remember the detail about the India ink on the catcher's mitt. And that Holden has a cameo from camp." The story concerns the death of Kenneth Caulfield, a character who was developed into Holden's brother Allie in Catcher. The story was written for Harper's Bazaar, but Salinger withdrew it before it was published.

The other two stories, "Paula" and "Birthday Boy," have been available to researchers at the University of Texas's Harry Ransom Center. We weren't able to confirm whether these stories match the manuscripts there, but the plot details recounted on Salinger scholar Kenneth Slawenski's website do seem to match the details of the stories.

Reading the stories is an odd experience — "The Ocean Full Of Bowling Balls" in particular is magical and sweet and sad, as is all of Salinger, and it's a delight to finally be able to read it and impossible to understand why he would secret it away. But the other two stories are very rough, at best, and it's hard not to feel a bit guilty when devouring something that he didn't want the world to see, and it's harder still to imagine a less Salinger-esque way to read these stories than hastily scanned and illegally hosted online.

In the end, Salinger's way with words wins out. Here are the most beautiful quotes from the three stories: