Swedish author can’t publish sequel to Salinger’s ‘Rye’ in U. S.
NEW YORK — A Swedish author whose new book was promoted as a sequel to J. D. Salinger’s “The Catcher in the Rye” cannot publish it in the United States because it too closely mirrors Salinger’s classic without adequate parody or critique, a judge ruled Wednesday.
U. S. District Judge Deborah Batts issued her written ruling in Manhattan after considering arguments in a lawsuit brought by the 90-year-old reclusive author against the publishers of “60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye.”
Batts said Swedish author Fredrik Colting had “taken well more from ‘Catcher,’ in both substance and style, than is necessary for the alleged transformative purpose of criticizing Salinger and his attitudes and behavior.”
She said Colting’s claim that he also wrote the book to critically examine Salinger’s most famous character, Holden Caulfield, was “problematic and lacking in credibility.”
She also rejected arguments that the depiction of a character in Colting’s book to represent Caulfield 60 years later was a parody. She said in a footnote that Colting and his publishers made no indication before the lawsuit was filed that the book was meant as a parody or critique of Salinger’s work.
“Quite to the contrary, the original jacket of ‘60 Years’ states that it is ‘. . . a marvelous sequel to one of our most beloved classics,’ ” the judge said. “It is simply not credible for defendant Colting to assert now that this primary purpose was to critique Salinger and his persona.”
SCB Distributors said it hoped to reverse the judge’s ruling on appeal and sell the book in the United States this fall.
Marcia Beth Paul, a lawyer who argued on Salinger’s behalf, declined to comment.
The book was scheduled to be published in the United States late this summer, but the publication was challenged by Salinger, of Cornish, N. H.
The book has already been published in England.
“The Catcher in the Rye,” which has sold more than 35 million copies, tells what happens to the 16-year-old Caulfield for several days immediately after he is kicked out of a prep school just before Christmas and decides to explore New York City before returning to his family home.
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