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Arts & Culture

AMERICAN MASTERS: Salinger

J.D. Salinger with signature cigarette.
Courtesy of Antony Di Gesu
J.D. Salinger with signature cigarette.

Tuesday, January 21, 2014 at 9 p.m. on KPBS TV

Filmmaker Shane Salerno’s 10-year investigation culminates in the first work to get beyond "The Catcher in the Rye" author's impenetrable wall of privacy and seclusion. AMERICAN MASTERS presents the exclusive, never-before-seen director’s cut of "Salinger" as the series’ 200th episode, featuring 15 minutes of new material.

Salinger is an intricately structured mystery that reveals the author’s private world: how World War II influenced his life and work, his painstaking writing methods, his many relationships with young women, and the literary secrets he left behind after his death in 2010.

The documentary features interviews with some 150 subjects including Salinger's friends, colleagues and members of his inner circle who speak on the record for the first time, as well as previously unseen film footage, photographs and other materials.

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The only photo during WWII of Salinger writing "The Catcher in the Rye."
Courtesy of Denise Fitzgerald
The only photo during WWII of Salinger writing "The Catcher in the Rye."

Participants including E.L. Doctorow, Tom Wolfe, Gore Vidal, Pulitzer Prize-winners A. Scott Berg and Elizabeth Frank, actors Martin Sheen, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Edward Norton, John Cusack, Danny DeVito, playwright John Guare and Oscar-winning screenwriter Robert Towne all share Salinger’s influence on their lives, their work and the broader culture.

“The Four Musketeers”: J.D. Salinger, Jack Altaras, John Keenan, Paul Fitzgerald. Salinger was part of the U.S. Army's Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) on the ground in Europe during World War II. Salinger formed a strong bond with three other men in the CIC and they dubbed themselves the Four Musketeers.
Courtesy of Denise Fitzgerald
“The Four Musketeers”: J.D. Salinger, Jack Altaras, John Keenan, Paul Fitzgerald. Salinger was part of the U.S. Army's Counter Intelligence Corps (CIC) on the ground in Europe during World War II. Salinger formed a strong bond with three other men in the CIC and they dubbed themselves the Four Musketeers.

This film is no longer available to stream on demand.

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