American readers will be denied the chance to find out what may have happened to Holden Caulfield, the archetypal disaffected teenager, in his old age.

The reclusive author J. D. Salinger has won a battle to ban a purported sequel to his coming-of-age classic The Catcher in the Rye in the United States, prompting its author to cry censorship.

60 Years Later: Coming through the Rye, written by the Swedish author Fredrik Colting under the pen name John David California, is already on sale in Britain.

The book features a character called Mr C — based on Salinger’s Caulfield — escaping from a retirement home aged 76.

A US judge issued an injunction in New York on Wednesday barring its publication in America during litigation, effectively killing its late-summer release date.

Colting told The Times: “I was pretty blown away by the judge’s decision. I didn’t think they banned books in the US. I mean, what’s next, a book burning?

“Obviously we will appeal the judge’s descision,” he added. It was a form of censorship that he thought was possible only in the former Soviet bloc.

In her ruling, District Judge Deborah Batts said: “There is a substantial similarity between Catcher and 60 Years, such that it was an unauthorised infringement of the plaintiff’s copyright.

“Mr C has similar or identical thoughts, memories and personality traits to Caulfield, often using precisely the same or only slightly modified language from that used by Caulfield in Catcher, and has the same friends and family as Caulfield.

“For example, Mr C is a frequent liar, constantly complains, is out of shape, has trouble manoeuvring in the dark, combs his hair with his hand to one side, wears the same red hunting cap, is obsessed with whether birds migrate for the winter, and likes the feeling of time standing still in a museum.”

Salinger’s coming-of-age classic has sold about 35 million copies since it was first published in 1951 and is taught in almost all American schools.

The author, 90, living as a recluse in his home in the rural town of Cornish in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, has not published any work since a short piece of fiction in The New Yorker magazine in 1965.

A former girlfriend has suggested that he continue to write and has at least two complete unpublished novels. Salinger fiercely protects Catcher, spurning offers of stage, TV or film adaptations, including an approach from Steven Spielberg.

Colting, 33, who lives in Sweden, says that he has read Catcher only twice — once when he was 15 and again before writing his book. In court papers he said that he did not “slavishly copy” Salinger in writing 60 Years Later, his first novel.

The Swede self-published the book through his own company, Nicotext, and its British arm Windupbird Publishing. The book was not facing litigation in Britain. The US legal row has sparked interest in the book, and it is selling on the internet for up to $200 (£120).

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