Court Extends Stay on Salinger Book

A federal appeals court Tuesday delayed the publication of an unauthorized biography of reclusive author J. D. Salinger until next month.

The U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals extended a lower court’s weeklong stay against publication of “J. D. Salinger: A Writing Life,” pending formal arguments before the appeals panel.

Salinger, who wrote “The Catcher in the Rye” and several other popular novels and short stories before he went into seclusion in 1965, has sued to block the biography. He said it violated copyright law by quoting or paraphrasing, without permission, 70 private letters he wrote over a 25-year period and later copyrighted.

Last week, U.S. District Judge Pierre N. Leval in Manhattan denied Salinger’s request for an injunction blocking Random House from publishing the work by Ian Hamilton. But Leval delayed release of the book for a week while Salinger appealed.