Attorneys at Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz filed papers on behalf of Fredrik Colting and his distributor asking the court to deny JD Salinger’s request for an injunction blocking publication of 60 YEARS LATER — Coming through the Rye. They claim the book is ” a complex and undeniably transformative exposition” about JD Salinger and “his best known creation Holden Caulfield” that is “protected parody, containing important commentary and criticism.”
Now that he has a lawyer, Fredrik Colting has backtracked on how he positions the work, saying that “while my earlier book cover and some promotional material characterized 60 YEARS as a sequel, I now realize this description is inaccurate and I have changed it…. 60 YEARS is not in any way a continuation of CATCHER.”
Having noted earlier in the filing how he is “intrigued by Holden Caulfield” Colting later says “my book is not designed to satisfy any interest the public might have in learning what happened next to Holden Caulfield…. Rather it is intended to stand on its own as a critical examination of the character Holden Caulfield, the relationship between the author and his creation, and the life of a particular author as he grows old but seems imprisoned by the literary character he created.”
Expert witness for the defense Sara Nelson assures the court that 60 Years “will have not detrimental impact on sales of Catcher in the Rye.”
FKKS site