The reading public’s curiosity about author J. D. Salinger’s private life has grown even as his retreat into reclusiveness has deepened. Finally, biographer Paul Alexander has managed to tiptoe through the legal minefields that often surround such projects to give us Salinger: A Biography. Alexander draws upon published sources and personal interviews with more than 40 prominent literary figures, such as George Plimpton, Gay Talese, and Tom Wolfe, to offer this incisive look at Salinger the man, the author, and the icon. In this excerpt, Alexander examines Salinger’s relationship with his father, a driven businessman who dreamed of joining the ranks of high society.

Many people, such as biographer Alexander, cannot understand J.D. Salinger’s refusal to exercise his privilege of fame. The author of Catcher in the Rye has been holed up for decades in New England, living a celebrity’s nightmare but a writer’s dream: no outside contact, a writing bunker where he can retire for weeks on end and a string of pretty young wives. By eschewing society and all media, he has become the subject of many speculative biographies, and this one, like most, promises more than it delivers. Alexander only shows what can be found in the public record and in previous writings: Salinger’s childhood, wartime breakdown and rare recent forays into public life. Amid his speculation and armchair psychology, Alexander does provide detailed directions to Salinger’s house. But his thesis that Salinger is reclusive to cultivate curiosity about him and his work reflects Alexander’s desires rather than Salinger’s.