please welcome shane salerno.hane, thanks for coming and joining me. [ applause ] >> stephen: now -- >> i am good. >> stephen: again, i am the only thirsty one here tonight. now, shane, you are the coauthor of a new biography. >> yes. >> stephen: of j.d. salinger, you are also the writer and the director of a new movie again called salinger. >> that's right. >> why did you throw yourself into the life of salinger? why is he your white whale? >> he was, that is a good way to put it. his life is so extraordinary. when i found out that j.d. salinger lost the love of his life to charlie chaplain. >> this is what a high roller salinger was. if eugene o'neill's daughter. >> yes. >> stephen: and at age 16 who is she dating. >> between 16 and 18, peter arnold. >> stephen: the great new york cartoonist. >> j.d. salinger and basically married charlie chaplain on her 18th birthday. >> stephen: from 16 to 18. >> she was an extraordinary woman. >> stephen: salinger goes off to fight world war ii. >> she goes to hollywood and m

the director of the film and coauthor of the book is shane salerno. >> what's interesting is how aggressively he pursued his fame, how aggressively he pursued notoriety. you read these early letters and he's actually really excited that samuel goldwyn has optioned his story. he's really excited that they're talking about him in hollywood or that the magazine that had uncle wiggly or bananafish selling really well. whatever his expectation of fame were, when it happened, he couldn't get away from it fast enough. >> rose: shane salerno for the hour, next. captioning sponsored by rose communications from our studios in new york city, this is charlie rose. >> rose: j.d. salinger's one of the most successful authors of all time. his 1951 novel catcher in the rye. it is a classic sold over 250,000 -- eafer a million copies and continues to sell over 250,000 each year. he turned his back on fame and chose instead the life. salerno shows his life. here's a trailer for salinger. >> in 1979 i got an assignment for newsweek magazine to photograph this author. he doesn't like to be photograph but we do k

in his report this sunday morning, we look at the documentary, "the making of shane salerno." >> a writer photo we uncovered of him in his bedroom. this is is how we got it when we first got it. it shows you the length that we have to go to the bring things back to life sometimes. >> he spent $2 million of his own money to make the film. >> i was hooked and compelled of what began a nine-year story. >> that salinger was protected by a code of silence that his friends didn't want to break. >> i didn't talk about it, because i knew he didn't want me to talk about it. >> reporter: her story is one that salerno uncovered. >> i noticed that you didn't talk about it for some years. >> yes. >> were you aware -- >> yes, i was. >> when he died at the age of 91, miller decided to talk. >> reporter: how did you meet exactly? >> i was sitting at a pool and reading wuthering heights, and he said, how is heath cliff? we were in daytona beach. >> it is 1949 at the daytona beach in florida. she was 14 and salinger was 30. >> reporter: what did you do together? >> we walked on the beach every afternoon. >