J.D. Salinger's literary trust recently threatened legal action against memorabilia dealer Gary Zimet for posting a letter on his memorabilia site, momentsintime.com, that was allegedly written by the famous author. The letter was addressed to a producer, and concerned selling film rights for Salinger's classic "The Catcher in the Rye."
In the letter, Salinger appeared hesitant to allow a film adaptation to be made. He noted, "What he thinks and does so naturally in his solitude in the novel, on the stage could at best be only pseudo-simulated." He continued:
And Holden Caulfield himself, in my undoubtedly super-biased opinion, is essentially unactable. A Sensitive, Intelligent, Talented Young Actor in a Reversible Coat wouldn't be nearly enough. It would take someone with X to bring it off, and no very young man even if he has X quite knows what to do with it.
The author's son, Matt Salinger, sent a letter to Zimet, seen by The Huffington Post, in which Salinger stated that "Any publication - even online - without express permission by my father and/or the Trust is a direct and clear infringement of my father’s, and now the Trust’s, intellectual property rights, under United States federal and/or state laws."
He demanded that Zimet "immediately cease and desist from all further display, publication, and distribution and/or advertising of any and all such letters, and remove and/or disable access to all the current item listed on the website http://www.momentsintime.com as well as any other site [he] may control or own."
In a phone interview with The Huffington Post, Zimet said, "The letter has been up [on the website] for probably a year and a half, and I just find it odd that only 10 days or so ago [Matt Salinger] asked that I take it down."
He also noted that he has never had any other problems concerning his memorabilia collections and copyright issues with posting them on the web.
Zimet said he had told the estate that he would "confer with his lawyer," but that he is "in no rush to take it down."