Holiday 2020 Catalogue

L i t e r a t u r e 26 The Catcher In The Rye , First Edition In First-Issue Dust Jacket, A Stunning Copy 23. SALINGER, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston, 1951. Octavo, original black cloth, dust jacket, custom clamshell box. $23,500. First edition of Salinger’s first book—the now-classic novel that defined the voice of young America for a generation—in first-issue dust jacket with photograph of the author on the back panel. “ The Catcher in the Rye is undoubtedly a 20th-century classic” (Parker, 300). “This novel is a key-work of the 1950s in that the theme of youthful rebellion is first adumbrated in it, though the hero, Holden Caulfield, is more a gentle voice of protest, unprevailing in the noise, than a militant world-changer… The Catcher in the Rye was a symptom of a need, after a ghastly war and during a ghastly pseudo-peace, for the young to raise a voice of protest the failures of the adult world” (Burgess, 99 Novels , 53-4). First-issue dust jacket , with rear panel photograph of Salinger lightly cropped at top edge. Bookplate. Owner signature. Book fine; only lightest rubbing to bright unrestored dust jacket. A very desirable fine copy of this literary landmark. “One guy, kept saying to the other guy, ‘Hold the sonuvabitch up! Hold it up, for Chrissake!’ It certainly was a gorgeous way to talk about a Christmas tree.”