A Swedish author who has written a sequel to The Catcher in the Rye is carrying his fight to publish the work to a higher court.

Fredrik Colting asked a federal appeals court in Manhattan on Thursday to reverse a lower court ruling that prevented him publishing the book.

Colting claims his 60 Years Later; Coming Through the Rye is a commentary on J.D. Salinger's perennial bestseller about adolescent angst.

"Colting is not a pirate," his lawyers wrote in the appeals claim. The new book uses "only the minimum amount of copyrighted material necessary to make his criticism and commentary," they said.

60 Years Later was scheduled for U.S. publication in September, until District Judge Deborah Batts blocked it on the grounds that it infringed copyright.

Salinger, who has lived a reclusive lifestyle since the 1960s, had hired lawyers to stop publication of the Swedish author's work, which tells the story of a character called Mr. C who escapes from his senior's home to take an episodic journey in New York.

Salinger's 1951 book, which has appealed to successive generations of young readers, follows the adventures of Holden Caulfield after he leaves his school.

The author of 60 Years Later was initially identified as John David California, but is actually Colting, who lives near Goteberg, Sweden.

His lawyers argue in the appeal claim that he has been stripped of his rights to fair comment.

"Banning it, merely because it is presented in what might be a less academic form, not only deprives the defendants of their rights, but also denies the public the opportunity to read this work and to appreciate the new light it sheds on one of the most famous works of American fiction," the claim said.

With files from The Associated Press