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Their 700-page Salinger biography has new information well beyond any possible posthumous fiction. Nine years in the making and thoroughly documented, "Salinger" features many rare photographs and letters; unprecedented detail about the author's World War II years and brief first marriage; a revelatory interview with the former teenage girl, Jean Miller, who inspired his classic story "For Esme -- With Love and Squalor"; and an account of how Salinger, who supposedly shunned Hollywood for much of his life, nearly agreed to allow "Esme" to be adapted into a feature film. "Salinger" both fleshes out and challenges aspects of the author's legend. He is portrayed as deeply traumatized by his war experiences and stunned by his post-"Catcher" fame. But he also comes off as far less reclusive and detached than long believed. He does agree to the occasional interview, even initiating discussion with The New York Times, and appears sensitive to his public image. His affinity for young people is not confined to his books, and Salinger's biographers closely track his history of intense attachments to teens, from Oona O'Neill in the 1940s to Joyce Maynard in the 1970s. The book is structured as an oral history, featuring hundreds of new and old interviews, excerpts from newspaper accounts and previous biographies and commentary from Shields and Salerno. Those quoted range from Salinger's children to authors Tom Wolfe and Gore Vidal to Mark David Chapman, who cited "Catcher" as a reason he murdered John Lennon in 1980. Salerno has been promising to make headlines ever since announcing the biography and film shortly after Salinger's death. Earlier this year, he quickly arranged lucrative deals with the Weinstein Co. for a feature film, the producers of "American Masters" for TV rights and Simon & Schuster for the book. The filmmaker himself has proved as effective as Salinger at keeping a secret, with only a handful of people even knowing of the project's existence during Salinger's lifetime. Salerno spent some $2 million of his own money and traveled throughout the U.S. and Europe in search of material. He is also adept at revealing secrets, with recent stories by The Associated Press and other media outlets, featuring photographs never previously published. Salinger never authorized a biography, but several unauthorized books have come out over the past 30 years, notably one by Ian Hamilton. In 1987, Salinger successfully blocked release of Hamilton's "J.D. Salinger: A Writer's Life," citing the use of previously unpublished letters. Hamilton described his legal battle in "Searching for J.D. Salinger," published in 1988.
[Associated
Press;
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