Unpublished Salinger biography heads to NY auction


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NEW YORK (AP) - An unauthorized and never-published biography of J.D. Salinger is expected to bring up to $6,000 at auction.

Ian Hamilton's "J.D. Salinger: A Writing Life" is being offered at Swann Auction Galleries on Nov. 21.

It is being sold by a private American collector and has a pre-sale estimate of $4,000 to $6,000.

Salinger, who died in 2010, successfully blocked release of Hamilton's book in 1987, citing the use of previously unpublished letters.

A spokeswoman for Salinger's estate did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

The bound, uncorrected proof was one of about 100 that were printed as review copies, said John Larson, Swann's 19th - and 20th - century literature specialist. The author's name is misspelled on the title page as "Hamiton."

Larson said none has ever come up at auction.

"This is definitely a wild card. There may be extreme interest because it's the first," he said.

Larson said the timing was good, citing a new biography and recent documentary about the reclusive novelist.

Hamilton described his legal battle over the book in "Searching for J.D. Salinger," published in 1988.

Hamilton died in 2001.

(Copyright 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)

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