In the August 1986 issue of Vogue, the respected British writer Ian Hamilton chatted with an interviewer about his book J. D. Salinger: A Writing Life, an unauthorized biography of the legendary novelist which was due to be published that month. His fascination with Salinger, Hamilton explained, dated back to his youth, when he’d fallen in love with The Catcher in the Rye; it had been unexpectedly reawakened one day when his sixteen-year-old son came home excited about a “wonderful book” he’d been reading at school: it was, of course, The Catcher in the Rye. Though Salinger himself (whom Hamilton did not know personally) had proven to be a good deal less lovable than his celebrated novel, Hamilton found that his sympathy for the author had increased, rather than diminished, over the course of his researches. “I would love to know what he thinks of this account,” Hamilton said.

By the time that issue of Voguehit the stands, Hamilton had his wish. Late in May of that year, having seen bound galleys of Hamilton’s book, Salinger spoke out loudly—through his lawyers, who complained to Hamilton’s publisher, Random House, that the book’s extensive use of Salinger’s unpublished correspondence exceeded legal “fair use” guidelines and constituted a violation of his copyright and an invasion of his privacy. Though Hamilton quickly revised the book, substituting paraphrase for direct quotation from the letters in many cases, this solution did not satisfy Salinger: in October he sued Random