In trying to research the details of J.D. Salinger's life for this book, Ian Hamilton forced the writer out of his reclusive hideaway to challenge his discoveries in an American court of law. When Ian Hamilton set out in 1983 to write a biography of Salinger, he knew that there would be difficulties. Just how great those difficulties would be, what implacable hostility he would meet from Salinger and what astonishing finds he would stumble on, he could not have guessed.;This text is the story of that quest, a literary detective story which ends in court, with a bitter and protracted lawsuit in which Salinger sought to restrict the use Hamilton could make of his letters.
--This text refers to the
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Publishers Weekly
This embattled biography has been revised because of the legal suit Salinger instituted to stop publication, and the most valuable part of the book is Hamilton's proud and indignant exposition of those long proceedings, torturous to him and endangering, he feels, to Constitutional freedoms. At issue were Salinger's unpublished letters, and Hamilton is rightly disturbed by the fact that, in covering the case, newspapers and magazines were able to print the very correspondence he was restricted from using. He wonders: "Can we assume that the letters have been released into the public domain, that they are no longer 'unpublished' ? Would the Random House lawyers now let me put them back into my book?" The answer is no, and in its spelling out of Salinger's "writing life" (even in his original version, Hamilton only chronicled that life up to 1965, when Salinger stopped publishing), the biography is a dry, adequate chronology of publication dates and landmark events that lacks passion and driveperhaps the natural result of recounting a life so obsessively removed from engagement with the world. Within the text, Hamilton refers to himself and his biographer "alter ego" as "we," an affectation that distracts the reader.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This work, scheduled for release in August 1986, was abandoned after Salinger successfully sued to enjoin publication on the grounds of copyright violation. This book is an attempt to salvage the biography and, at the same time, to describe the problems Hamilton faced in writing the life of an author who prefers to remain hidden. Ironically, Salinger's suit to crush the biography caused him to relinquish some of his cherished privacy. Moreover, Hamilton's account of Salinger's conduct during the legal battles actually reveals more of Salinger's character than the snippets of letters that appeared in the original work. Essential reading for anyone interested in Salinger. Highly recommended for all literature collections. William Gargan, Brooklyn Coll. Lib., CUNY
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
11 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A pleasure to read,
By Judith Hubbard (Ithaca, NY) - See all my reviews
This review is from: In Search of J. D. Salinger, A Biography (Hardcover)
Although my primary motive for reading this book was research for a school paper, I was soon reading it for pleasure. The author's writing style is appealing, intelligent, and humorous. The comprehensive description and analysis of J.D. Salinger's life before he went into seclusion keeps the reader interested, not only in what Salinger did, but in how it was viewed by the world around him. Hamilton peppers the text with well-chosen quotes from both Salinger's works (both the well-known books and short stories as well as the lesser known short stories published by magazines) and from his contemporaries. Although Hamilton could not directly base his biography of Salinger off of an interview, his sources are well documented and believable.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Hamilton's quest for Salinger,
By Raskolnikov (Montréal, Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: In Search of J D Salinger (Paperback)
The major problem with this book is that it only covers Salinger's life from 1919 to 1965. After this date, Hamilton only put a kind of resume of the trial that opposed him to Salinger. It sure is an interesting book to read, but there is way too much quotations and somehow you feel that you could've learned more. I suggest Paul Alexander's biography instead. It's more complete, even though he owes a lot to Hamilton who was one of the first to make profound researches about Salinger.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
a cautious tale,
By
This review is from: In Search of J. D. Salinger (Hardcover)
After recently beginning Paul Alexander's biography, I was delighted to stumble upon Ian Hamilton's cautious, yet entertaining, meta-biography. He doesn't dwell and gets on with his story. Hamilton does a great job of exposing the split personality of the biographer: as both neophyte and leech upon the creative world. Hamilton questions the validity of the "simplest" details of his subject's secret life. His honesty and reverence for Salinger result in a well-executed piece of writing; the best I've read anyway.
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