New Delhi, Aug. 8 -- In 2009, the year before he died at the age of 91, American writer J.D. Salinger successfully sued Fredrik Colting, one of his ardent fans, who had composed a sequel to Salinger's classic coming-of-age novel The Catcher in the Rye. Colting's offence? Daring to imagine Holden Caulfield, Salinger's iconic teenage anti-hero, as an elderly man and his reaction to the world as a 70-something curmudgeon.

Salinger's move was of a piece with his reputation as a fierce protector of his privacy and intellectual property. Despite the staggering popularity of The Catcher in the Rye, he had held back on granting permission to have it adapted for the stage and screen, even declining an offer from Walt Disney Productions. Crucially...