One of the most highly anticipated biographies in recent years, The Private War of J.D. Salinger by David Shields and Shane Salerno, has been acquired by Simon & Schuster for publication in September 2013, publisher Jonathan Karp announced today.

The biography has been in the works for eight years and includes interviews with over 150 sources who either worked directly with author J.D. Salinger, had a personal relationship with him, or were influenced by his work. A documentary film directed by Salerno was acquired yesterday by the PBS series, American Masters, which will air Salinger as its 200th episode. Susan Lacy, the creator and executive producer of American Masters, called the film “an extraordinary piece of work.”

The project has been the subject of much speculation since a 2010 Newsweek story, “Salinger Like You’ve Never Seen Him,” about the work-in-progress. Entertainment Weekly reported on the elaborate security surrounding the project. Simon & Schuster acquired world rights to the book pre-emptively in a negotiation with Shane Salerno.

Salinger’s best-known work, The Catcher in the Rye, has sold more than 120 million copies worldwide. The reclusive and enigmatic author died in 2010, thirty years after his last interview and forty-five years after his last published work.

“We are honored to be the publisher of what we believe will be the foundational book on one of the most beloved and most puzzling figures of the twentieth century,” said Jonathan Karp. “Many of us who read The Catcher in the Rye have, at some point in our lives, wished we could know the author better. Now, we finally can.”

Senior Editor Jofie Ferrari-Adler, who will edit the oral biography, added, "Both the film and book are an investigation into the cost of art and the cost of war. This is a truly revelatory work, and one that transcends literary biography to investigate the larger story of the legacy of World War II. Through the prism of Salinger’s life and his experience at war, the authors are presenting a personal history of the twentieth century.”

Salerno has been interviewing colleagues and intimates of Salinger since 2004. Since then, he and co-author David Shields have been shaping the interviews into an oral biography, which will be accompanied by never-before-seen photos of Salinger. Shields is the author of fourteen books, which have been translated into fifteen languages and won numerous awards, including the PEN/Revson award and the PEN Syndicated Fiction Award. Salerno has co-written a number of successful movies, including the widely acclaimed 2012 Oliver Stone film, Savages.

Said Shane Salerno: “The myth that people have read about and believed for sixty years about J.D. Salinger is one of someone too pure to publish, too sensitive to be touched. We replace the myth of Salinger with an extraordinarily complex, deeply contradictory human being. Our book offers a complete revaluation and reinterpretation of the work and the life.” 

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