Author J.D. Salinger has sued an anonymous author whose new book has been described as a sequel to Salinger's classic tale of teenage angst, The Catcher in the Rye.

Lawyers for the notoriously reclusive author, who has not published anything since 1965, filed the lawsuit in U.S. federal court in Manhattan on Monday.

The suit alleges Salinger has not granted the right to create a sequel to Catcher in the Rye or to use the popular novel's main character, Holden Caulfield.

First published in 1951, Catcher in the Rye continues to sell hundreds of thousands of copies annually.

The lawsuit requests a recall of the book 60 Years Later: Coming Through the Rye, which has yet to be released. It also seeks unspecified damages from its author, John David California, believed to be a pseudonym.

The novel follows a character called Mr. C who wakes up in a nursing home from which he escapes to make a curious journey through New York.

With files from the Associated Press