SALINGER, J. D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and Company. 1951.
8vo. Publisher’s black cloth, lettered in gilt to spine, first issue dust-jacket with a close crop to Salinger’s hair on rear panel (photograph of the author by Lottie Jacobi, jacket designed by Michael Mitchell), with “Book-of-the-Month Club Selection” to back flap; price-clipped, professional restoration stretching from front panel to rear along the top edge of jacket (c. 6 x 1cm), tear to hinge of back flap (c. 11.5cm), some wear to jacket edges, light toning to jacket spine, slight separation of cloth to crown of spine, slight pushing to crown and base of spine, cloth worn to front board’s base-right edge; very good; bookseller’s ticket “Henry Morgan &Co. Limited” with price “$3,50” to front pastedown.
First edition, first printing, in the first-issue dust jacket, identifiable by the close cropping of Salinger’s hair in the photograph on the rear panel.
The great American coming-of-age story, Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye distils the voice of adolescence in Holden Caulfield. The character (who first appeared a decade earlier in the short story “Slight Rebellion off Maddison”) unforgettably navigates his way through the challenges of growing up: anatomising the “phoniness” he finds in authority figures and peers alike.
Although greeted with hostility by many for its strong language and treatment of sex and violence (it was the most frequently censored book in American high schools and libraries between 1961 and 1982) it became, and remains, one of the most influential and beloved novels of the twentieth century.
SKU: 2124606