John Steinbeck in 1939 Born

Legal conflicts[edit]

Although Salinger tried to escape public exposure as much as possible, he struggled with unwanted attention from the media and the public.^[113] Readers of his work and students from nearby Dartmouth College often came to Cornish in groups, hoping to catch a glimpse of him.^[114] In May 1986 Salinger learned that the British writer Ian Hamilton intended to publish a biography that made extensive use of letters Salinger had written to other authors and friends. Salinger sued to stop the book's publication and in Salinger v. Random House the court ruled that Hamilton's extensive use of the letters, including quotation and paraphrasing, was not acceptable since the author's right to control publication overrode the right of fair use.^[115] Hamilton published In Search of J.D. Salinger: A Writing Life (1935–65) about his experience in tracking down information and the copyright fights over the planned biography.^[116]

An unintended consequence of the lawsuit was that many details of Salinger's private life, including that he had spent the last 20 years writing, in his words, "Just a work of fiction ... That's all" became public in the form of court transcripts.^[50] Excerpts from his letters were also widely disseminated, most notably a bitter remark written in response to Oona O'Neill's marriage to Charlie Chaplin:

I can see them at home evenings. Chaplin squatting grey and nude, atop his chiffonier, swinging his thyroid around his head by his bamboo cane, like a dead rat. Oona in an aquamarine gown, applauding madly from the bathroom.^[26][115]

In 1995, Iranian director Dariush Mehrjui released the film Pari, an unauthorized loose adaptation of Franny and Zooey. The film could be distributed legally in Iran since it has no copyright relations with the United States, Salinger had his lawyers block a planned 1998 screening of it at Lincoln Center.^[117][118] Mehrjui called Salinger's action "bewildering", explaining that he saw his film as "a kind of cultural exchange".^[119]

In 1996, Salinger gave a small publisher, Orchises Press, permission to publish "Hapworth 16, 1924".^[120] It was to be published that year and listings for it appeared at Amazon.com and other booksellers. After a flurry of articles and critical reviews of the story appeared in the press, the publication date was pushed back repeatedly before apparently being canceled altogether. Amazon anticipated that Orchises would publish the story in January 2009, but at the time of his death, it was still listed as "unavailable".^{[121][122][123]}

In June 2009, Salinger consulted lawyers about the forthcoming U.S. publication of an unauthorized sequel to The Catcher in the Rye, 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, by Swedish book publisher Fredrik Colting under the pseudonym J. D. California. The book appears to continue the story of Holden Caulfield. In Salinger's novel, Caulfield is 16, wandering the streets of New York after being expelled from private school; the California book features a 76-year-old man, "Mr. C", musing on having escaped his nursing home. Salinger's New York literary agent Phyllis Westberg told Britain's Sunday Telegraph, "The matter has been turned over to a lawyer". The fact that little was known about Colting and the book was set to be published by a new publishing imprint, Windupbird Publishing, gave rise to speculation in literary circles that the whole thing might be a hoax.^[124] District court judge Deborah Batts issued an injunction that prevented the book from being published in the U.S.^[125][126] Colting filed an appeal on July 23, 2009; it was heard in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals on September 3, 2009.^[127][128] The case was settled in 2011 when Colting agreed not to publish or otherwise distribute the book, e-book or any other editions of 60 Years Later in the U.S. or Canada until The Catcher in the Rye enters the public domain, to refrain from using the title Coming through the Rye, dedicate the book to Salinger or refer to The Catcher in the Rye. Colting remains free to sell the book in the rest of the world.^[129]