(CNN) -- Reclusive author J.D. Salinger has emerged, at least in the pages of court documents, to try to stop a novel that presents Holden Caulfield, the disaffected teen hero of his classic "The Catcher in the Rye," as an old man.



J.D. Salinger has stayed out of the public eye for most of the past half century.



Lawyers for Salinger filed suit in federal court this week to stop the publication, sale and advertisement of "60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye," a novel written by an author calling himself J.D. California and published by a Swedish company that advertises joke books and a "sexual dictionary" on its Web site.



"The Sequel infringes Salinger's copyright rights in both his novel and the character Holden Caulfield, who is the narrator and essence of that novel," said the suit, filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New York.



Published in 1951, "The Catcher in the Rye" is an iconic take on teen alienation that is consistently listed among the greatest English-language novels ever written.



Salinger, 90, who has famously lived the life of a recluse in New Hampshire for most of the past half-century, last published in 1965. With the exception of a 1949 movie based on one of his early short stories, he has never authorized adaptations of any of his work, even turning down an overture from director Steven Spielberg to make "Catcher" into a movie.



"There's no more to Holden Caulfield. Read the book again. It's all there," the court filing quotes Salinger as saying in 1980. "Holden Caulfield is only a frozen moment in time."



The filing refers to the new book's author as "John Doe," saying that the name John David California probably is made up.



The first-time novelist's biography on Amazon.com says California is the son of a Swedish mother and American father who was named after the state where he was born.



It claims he is a former gravedigger and triathlete who found a copy of Salinger's novel "in an abandoned cabin in rural Cambodia" and that it helped him survive "the most maniacal of tropical fevers and chronic isolation."



The Web site's description of the book is written in the same choppy, first-person stream of consciousness that Salinger employs as Holden wanders the streets of New York. It describes a character, "Mr. C," who flees his nursing home and "embarks on a curious journey through the streets of New York."



The lawsuit names Swedish publisher Nicotext; its offshoot, Windupbird Publishing Ltd.; and California-based SCB Distributors as defendants.



The Web site for Nicotext advertises such books as "The Macho Man's (Bad) Joke Book" and "Give It To Me Baby," which it describes as an erotic "flick book."



Marcia Paul, Salinger's New York-based attorney, declined to speak on the record, citing her client's private nature.



E-mail messages to Nicotext were not returned Wednesday.



Aaron Silverman, president of SCB Distributors, said the people behind the new book plan to defend it against the lawsuit.



"We believe we have the right to distribute this book and the publishers believe they have the right to publish it," he said.



Silverman, whose company distributes books by about 150 publishers, called "60 Years Later" a work of "social science fiction," saying that California doesn't plagiarize, but sets a well-known character in an alternate place and time -- as literature has done for centuries.



"It's amazing," he said of the book. "If it was something else, or it felt like a knock-off or whatever, I would have told the publisher we wouldn't do it. But it's really just amazing."



Despite his cloistered lifestyle, Salinger nods to the contemporary marketplace in the lawsuit, noting that, as of last week, " 'The Catcher in the Rye' currently sells more copies on Amazon.com than 'Harry Potter
What is the aim of the Lawsuit? What does J.D. Slainger say? Where is the court hearing scheduled? What does the sequel infringe on? Where did a former gravedigger say he discovered "Catcher?" What was the lawsuit? Where is the hearing? What sequel is it to? Who seeks the lawsuit? What does lawsuit seek halt to? Place where he discovered "Catcher"? Name of the person who wrote the classic novel?
Lawyers for Salinger filed suit in federal court this week to stop the publication, sale and advertisement of "60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye," a novel written by an author calling himself J.D. California and published by a Swedish company that advertises joke books and a "sexual dictionary" on its Web site. "There's no more to Holden Caulfield. Read the book again. It's all there," in New York. Salinger's copyright rights in both his novel and the character Holden Caulfield, "in an abandoned cabin in rural Cambodia" to stop the publication, sale and advertisement of "60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye," U.S. District Court in New "The Catcher in the Rye," Lawyers for Salinger stop a novel that presents Holden Caulfield, the disaffected teen hero of his classic "The Catcher in the Rye," as an old man. abandoned cabin in rural Cambodia" J.D. Salinger
question: What is the aim of the Lawsuit?, answer: Lawyers for Salinger filed suit in federal court this week to stop the publication, sale and advertisement of "60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye," a novel written by an author calling himself J.D. California and published by a Swedish company that advertises joke books and a "sexual dictionary" on its Web site. | question: What does J.D. Slainger say?, answer: "There's no more to Holden Caulfield. Read the book again. It's all there," | question: Where is the court hearing scheduled?, answer: in New York. | question: What does the sequel infringe on?, answer: Salinger's copyright rights in both his novel and the character Holden Caulfield, | question: Where did a former gravedigger say he discovered "Catcher?", answer: "in an abandoned cabin in rural Cambodia" | question: What was the lawsuit?, answer: to stop the publication, sale and advertisement of "60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye," | question: Where is the hearing?, answer: U.S. District Court in New | question: What sequel is it to?, answer: "The Catcher in the Rye," | question: Who seeks the lawsuit?, answer: Lawyers for Salinger | question: What does lawsuit seek halt to?, answer: stop a novel that presents Holden Caulfield, the disaffected teen hero of his classic "The Catcher in the Rye," as an old man. | question: Place where he discovered "Catcher"?, answer: abandoned cabin in rural Cambodia" | question: Name of the person who wrote the classic novel?, answer: J.D. Salinger