David Shields' secret J.D. Salinger book

Seattle's most inventive literary autobiographer cowrites a bio ripping the lid off every secret J.D. Salinger would not want you to know.

City Arts Seattle's first cover boy David Shields has finished a 700-page J.D. Salinger bio with Shane Salerno, who spent millions making the new documentary Salinger.

Mike Fleming says the film tells all about Salinger's hermit years, D-Day trauma, Nazi interrogations, heartache when Charlie Chaplin stole his girl, spurning of Spielberg's 8-figure film offer, bizarre behavior — plus what's in that vault containing his last 45 years' writing. Probably there's footage of Salinger himself. And what do 150 sources say in the book?

"I'm excited about the Salinger project and very proud of the book, but I'm not currently permitted to elaborate," says Shields. "For now my focus is on Reality Hunger," due out in a few weeks.(Read the City Arts review now.)