Celebrated author and illustrator Russell Hoban has passed away. He was 86-years-old. He published both adult works and children’s books.

In children’s publishing, Hoban became especially famous for his Frances picture book series; he published a total of seven titles starring the temperamental badger.

According to The New York Times, Hoban preferred not to illustrate his own picture books; a majority of the Frances titles featured the drawings of his first wife Lillian Hoban. On the adult side, Hoban wrote and published the popular science fiction novel Riddley Walker. It went on to win the John W. Campbell Memorial Award for best science fiction novel in 1982.

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Bibliophiles and film fanatics can look forward to a plethora of book-and-documentary projects. Simon & Schuster announced that rock artist Pearl Jam has signed a deal with them; the illustrated self-portrait, Pearl Jam Twenty, will be released in September.

Here’s more from the press release: “Published and in celebration of Pearl Jam’s twentieth anniversary and in conjunction with Cameron Crowe‘s definitive documentary film and soundtrack of the same name, Pearl Jam Twenty is an aesthetically stunning and definitive chronicle of their two decades as a band.”

The video embedded above features the trailer for HBO’s Bobby Fischer Against The World. We reported earlier on the books Bobby Fischer and Living in the Material World: George Harrison; the accompanying films will be available later this year.

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Jeff Howe has partnered with The Atlantic to relaunch the online book club, One Book, One Twitter. 

Howe explained in the announcement: “I’d always intended to relaunch One Book, One Twitter … It has a new name—1book140—but what hasn’t changed is the global, participatory nature of the affair: The crowd is still in charge.”

Twitter readers will choose the book to read in the online book club.  You can still vote on the following titles: The Blind Assassin by Margaret Atwood, The Keep by Jennifer Egan, Snow by Orhan Pamuk, Super Sad True Love Story by Gary Shteyngart, and Apex Hides the Hurt by Colson Whitehead. Reading will commence on June 1st.

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33-year-old J.D. Salinger tried to run away with a married woman at a Harper’s Magazine party in 1952, one writer explained in a new essay. According to a Paris Review essay by Blair Fuller, Salinger privately proposed to her sister, Jill Fox, asking her to leave everything behind and start a new life in New Hampshire.

Fox refused, but confessed after the party: “I was smitten with Jerry [Salinger] that evening, but I wondered what he and I would be saying to one another around Hartford.” Hartford is the halfway point between Cornish and New York City.

Jill’s husband Joe Fox would become a Random House editor, working with authors like Truman Capote and Philip Roth. If given the chance, what author would you run away with?

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GalleyCat caught up with children’s writer Sarah Collins Honenberger (pictured) to talk about her book, Catcher, Caught. The author explained how her book engaged with J.D. Salinger‘s The Catcher in the Rye. Here are the highlights from our interview.

Q: What role does The Catcher in the Rye play in Catcher, Caught?

A: Whether you love Holden or hate him, he engenders strong emotions. The self that’s revealed in his depressed unreliable state of reporting is a self that many of us recognize in some deep part of our younger selves, that place where we were teetering on the precipice between childhood and the adult world. Almost 16, Daniel has just read the book TCITR as required reading when he’s diagnosed with leukemia.

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The J.D. Salinger estate has settled the lawsuit against Swedish publisher and author Fredrik Colting. The estate had sued the author over his Catcher in the Rye sequel, 60 Years Later–Coming Through the Rye.

Publisher’s Weekly has more details: “Colting has agreed not to publish or otherwise distribute the book, e-book, or any other editions of 60 Years Later in the U.S. or Canada until The Catcher in the Rye enters the public domain. Notably, however, Colting is free  to sell the book in other international territories without fear of interference.”

The article reports that Colting cannot include “Coming Through the Rye” as part of the book title. In addition, the author cannot refer to Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye, or his legal battles in the book.

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University Archives will auction a note that J.D. Salinger wrote rejecting filmmaker Hubert Cornfield‘s request to adapt Catcher in the Rye.

Salinger wrote: “I appreciate and respect your ardor, but for the present I see my novel as a novel and only as a novel. Should I change my mind in the future–which is extremely doubtful–I very probably would take on any casting and directing chores myself. Thank you for your interest and please take this as absolutely final.”

Salinger, who passed away in January 2010, never made his directorial debut. He will be the subject of the two-hour Shane Salerno documentary, Salinger. Famous names involved with the project include journalist Tom Wolfe, biographer A. Scott Berg, and Oscar winner Philip Seymour Hoffman. (Via Flavorpill)

On January 25, 2011, Random House will publish Kenneth Slawenski‘s biography of the late J. D. Salinger. Salinger: A Life was published in the U.K. earlier this year, but the U.S.  cover is pictured (click to enlarge).

Slawenski founded the Dead Caulfields website in 2004, a major resource for Salinger fans. Earlier this week, the site posted a BBC video of the reclusive author–we’ve embedded the YouTube video below.

Here’s more about the biography: “[It] provides a tremendous amount of new information, shedding light for the first time on many unknown events in Salinger’s life: his wartime romance; the inspiration behind The Catcher in the Rye; the impact of his experience fighting in the D-Day landings; the true story behind Franny and Zooey; full details on his romance with Oona O’Neill (later Mrs. Charlie Chaplin); his office intrigues with famous New Yorker editors and writers; his friendship with Ernest Hemingway; surprising evidence that he intended to continue publishing after his last story appeared in l965, and much more.”
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The quest to uncover literary elite nicknames continues over at Gawker, where Doree Shafrir has collected nicknames of famous writers. Her updated list included nicknames for New York University professor (and GalleyCat interviewee) Lawrence Wechsler and the great J.D. Salinger.

Yesterday, we urged GalleyCat readers to visit this handy dandy Nickname Generator for inspiration–helping the next generation of literary elites pick nicknames that will work at poetry readings and wrestling matches.

Add your nickname in the comments. Here are some of the results: Erin Downing was tickled pink with her randomly generated nickname: “I’m ‘Steamy Pink Fiend’–it’s perfect.” Nova Ren Suma ended up with a cosmic name: “Wow, I got ‘The Galaxy.’” Finally, Gretchen Stelter picked two names: “My literary elite nickname: Maxi Circus Shadow (wha?) My superhero nickname: The Strangely Neutron (I hope that one sticks).”

The New Yorker just published a short essay by the great journalist Lillian Ross, a tribute to her long friendship with the reclusive J.D. Salinger.

Her brief sketch fills in more details about Salinger’s life than most profiles, giving a peek into Salinger’s hobbies and thoughts about unwritten books. Best of all, the portrait contains a tantalizing tidbit about an adaptation of his classic story “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” that never happened.

Here’s an excerpt: “Salinger loved movies, and he was more fun than anyone to discuss them with. He enjoyed watching actors work, and he enjoyed knowing them. (He loved Anne Bancroft, hated Audrey Hepburn, and said that he had seen ‘Grand Illusion’ ten times.) Brigitte Bardot once wanted to buy the rights to ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish,’ and he said that it was uplifting news. ‘I mean it,’ he told me. ‘She’s a cute, talented, lost enfante, and I’m tempted to accommodate her, pour le sport.’”