http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSTRE5507H720090601NEW YORK (Reuters) - J.D. Salinger on Monday sued the writer and publisher of a book billed as a sequel to his classic novel "The Catcher in the Rye," saying the work infringes on his copyright.
Salinger is asking a judge to block publication of "60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye" written by an author identified as J.D. California.
Salinger holds a copyright to the 1951 novel, considered one of the great works of American literature, and its main character, Holden Caulfield.
The lawsuit describes Salinger as "fiercely protective of his intellectual property" and says he "would not approve of defendants' use of his intellectual property."
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,524157,00.htmlIn "60 Years Later," scheduled to be published in Britain this summer and in the United States in the fall, a character very much like Caulfield is 76 years old, an escapee from a retirement home and identified as "Mr. C." The novel is dedicated to Salinger and the author is a character in it, too, wondering whether to continue Caulfield's story.
"The Sequel is not a parody and it does not comment upon or criticize the original," Salinger's lawsuit alleged. "It is a ripoff pure and simple."
The lawsuit presented California as a mysterious, unsavory character, of uncertain name and location. "His precise whereabouts are unknown, despite due investigation," according to the court papers.
Aaron Silverman, the director of SCB Distributors, said that California was a resident of Sweden and provided The Associated Press with a phone number. Reached by the AP, a man identifying himself as California said that he lived outside of Goteborg, Sweden. He called the legal action "a little bit insane" and said that Salinger had control over the names of his characters, but not over his style or perspective.
"To me, this is a story about an old man. It's a love story, a story about an author and his character," said California, who added that John David California was his pen name. He declined to give his real name and said that he did not intend "John David" as an homage to Salinger, whose full name is Jerome David Salinger.
"I did not mean to cause him any trouble," California said.
A recluse living in rural New Hampshire, Salinger has not published in a book in decades and has rarely been heard from in public — expect when taking legal action.
In 1982, he sued a man who allegedly tried to sell a fictitious interview with the author to a national magazine. The impostor agreed to desist and Salinger dropped the suit.
Five years later, another Salinger legal action resulted in an important decision by the U.S. Supreme Court. The high court refused to allow publication of an unauthorized biography, by Ian Hamilton, that quoted from the author's unpublished letters. Salinger had copyrighted the letters when he learned about Hamilton's book, which came out in a revised edition in 1988.
Salinger did not appear in court in those cases and is not expected to for this lawsuit.
His legacy is duly praised in Monday's court papers. Salinger is "identified as the acclaimed author of numerous works of fiction" and "Catcher in the Rye" is called "one of the all-time classic American novels, achieving phenomenal critical and commercial success."
The papers boast of the novel's continued popularity, noting that on Amazon.com it currently outsells such favorites as "The Da Vinci Code," "To Kill a Mockingbird" and "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone."
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