Melville House Books

Barely three weeks after losing a court case that resulted in the barring from publication of a “sequel” to J.D. Salinger‘s Catcher in the Rye (see the earlier story), attorneys for the publisher — and author — of 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, Fredrik Colting, have filed an appeal.

As a Publishers Weekly story by Andrew Albanese reports, the appeal says the lower court’s injunction constitutes an “impermissible prior restraint and an unwarranted extension†of copyright protection.

The filing seeks “urgent relief,” reports Albanese, because “If 60 Years Later cannot be published in the U.S., Colting’s reputation as an author will be tarnished and [the book's distributor] SCB’s failure to deliver the book will harm its reputation with its customers. Substantial time and money Defendants invested in the marketing and promotion…and advertising, will be lost. The timing of the publication in the U.S. was set to take advantage of the publicity surrounding the book’s publication in London this Spring, and the injunction is causing an irretrievable loss of the momentum.â€

Dennis Johnson is the founder of MobyLives, and the co-founder and co-publisher of Melville House.