Books: Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted IN SEARCH OF J.D. SALINGER

(4 of 4)

Five years after undertaking the project, Hamilton is sadder and presumably wiser, although not necessarily richer. Random House footed the legal bills, but of his $100,000 advance, the biographer used up half for research and travel expenses. And there was the cost of ambivalence: "I proceeded with as much tact and decency as one could," says Hamilton. "Nonetheless there he is, wanting to be left alone, and he isn't being left alone, and this is partly because of me." If he had known the outcome, would Hamilton have written about Salinger? "No," he says emphatically. How does he feel about writing other biographies? "Extremely reluctant. The subject would have to be very, very dead."