{"id":119345,"date":"2017-12-28T11:00:02","date_gmt":"2017-12-28T16:00:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=119345"},"modified":"2017-12-19T11:08:58","modified_gmt":"2017-12-19T16:08:58","slug":"salingers-nightmare-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/28\/salingers-nightmare-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Salinger\u2019s Nightmare"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"p1\"><span class=\"s1\"><i>We\u2019re away until January 3, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2017. Enjoy your holiday!<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_109882\" style=\"width: 1010px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/salinger.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-109882\" class=\"wp-image-109882 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/salinger.jpg\" width=\"1000\" height=\"881\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/salinger.jpg 1000w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/salinger-300x264.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/salinger-768x677.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-109882\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">J. D. Salinger on November 20, 1952. Photo: San Diego Historical Society<\/p><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>In 1953, J. D. Salinger fled Manhattan for rural Cornish, New Hampshire, hoping to protect his privacy and find the solitude he needed for his work. <em>The Catcher<\/em> <em>in<\/em> <em>the<\/em> <em>Rye<\/em>, which spent thirty weeks on the<em>\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u2019 best-seller list, had generated immeasurable publicity and adulation for Salinger, who wanted none of it. Among his new suitors were such Hollywood bigwigs as Samuel Goldwyn and David O. Selznick, both vying for the screen rights to <em>Catcher<\/em>. They failed to secure Salinger\u2019s approval, as did many others, in turn\u2014but that didn\u2019t stop Bill Mahan, an unemployed former child star\u00a0and devoted fan from Los Angeles, from giving it a shot. In the early sixties, he resolved to claim the film rights himself, even if it meant disturbing Salinger at home.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/04\/13\/salingers-nightmare\/\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Read More &gt;&gt;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the sixties, an unemployed actor hatched a crazy scheme to convince the reclusive Salinger to give him the film rights to \u201cThe Catcher in the Rye\u201d\u2014in person.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1154,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32152],"tags":[28331,28332,10590,28338,28343,26308,995,910,28336,3877,28333,4699,28335,28334,28339,28341,1818,28337,28342,1473,28340],"class_list":["post-119345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2017","tag-bill-mahan","tag-billy-mahan","tag-cornish","tag-david-o-selznick","tag-desperation","tag-film-rights","tag-hollywood","tag-j-d-salinger","tag-journeys","tag-life-magazine","tag-movie-rights","tag-new-hampshire","tag-schemes","tag-screen-rights","tag-st-regis-hotel","tag-stalking","tag-the-catcher-in-the-rye","tag-the-jones-family","tag-unemployment","tag-vermont","tag-windsor"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Why an Unemployed Actor Flew Across the Country to Stalk Salinger<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An unemployed actor hatched a crazy scheme to convince the reclusive Salinger to give him the film rights to \u2018The Catcher in the Rye\u2019\u2014in person.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/28\/salingers-nightmare-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Salinger\u2019s Nightmare by Bill Barich\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"December 28, 2017 \u2013 In the sixties, an unemployed actor hatched a crazy scheme to convince the reclusive Salinger to give him the film rights to \u201cThe Catcher in the Rye\u201d\u2014in person.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/28\/salingers-nightmare-2\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Paris Review\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/parisreview\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2017-12-28T16:00:02+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/salinger.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"881\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Bill Barich\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@parisreview\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Bill Barich\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/28\/salingers-nightmare-2\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/28\/salingers-nightmare-2\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Bill Barich\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/5ce2c52ea353823354c4fd9d1997ce32\"},\"headline\":\"Salinger\u2019s Nightmare\",\"datePublished\":\"2017-12-28T16:00:02+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/28\/salingers-nightmare-2\/\"},\"wordCount\":177,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2017\/12\/28\/salingers-nightmare-2\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/04\/salinger.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Bill Mahan\",\"Billy Mahan\",\"Cornish\",\"David O. 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