Ian Hamilton wrote two books on J. D. Salinger. Only one, this
one, was published. The first, called J." D. Salinger: A Writing
Life," despite undergoing many changes to accommodate Salinger was
still victim of a legal ban. Salinger objected to the use of his
letters, in the end to any use of them. The first book had to be
shelved. With great enterprise and determination however, Ian
Hamilton set to and wrote this book which is more, much more, than
an emasculated version of the first.
For someone whose guarding of his privacy became so fanatical it
is perhaps surprising how much Ian Hamilton was able to disinter
about his earlier life. Until Salinger retreated completely into
his bolt-hole outside Cornish in New Hampshire many aspects of his
life, though it required assiduousness on the biographer's part,
could be pieced together. A surprising portrait emerges; although
there were early signs of renunciation, there were moments when his
behaviour could almost be described as gregarious. The trail
Hamilton follows is fascinating, and the story almost has the
lineaments of a detective mystery with the denouement suitably
being played out in Court.
'As highly readable and as literate an account of Salinger's
work from a biographical perspective as we are likely to receive'
"The Listener"
""
'A sophisticated exploration of Salinger's life and writing and
a sustained debate about the nature of literary biography, its
ethical legitimacy, its aesthetic relevance to a serious reading of
a writer's books' Jonathan Raban, "Observer"
""
'Hamilton's book is as devious, as compelling, and in a covert
way, as violent, as a story by Chandler' Victoria Glendinning, "The
Times"
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