"IF YOU REALLY WANT TO HEAR ABOUT IT…": FIRST EDITION OF SALINGER'S CATCHER IN THE RYE, A BEAUTIFUL COPY
SALINGER, J.D. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown, 1951. Octavo, original black cloth, original dust jacket.
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). "In American writing, there are three perfect books, which seem to speak to every reader and condition: Huckleberry Finn, The Great Gatsby and The Catcher in the Rye. Of the three, only Catcher defines an entire region of human experience: it is… the handbook of the adolescent heart" (New Yorker). "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 against the failures of the adult world. The young used many voices— anger, contempt, self-pity—but the quietest, that of a decent perplexed American adolescent, proved the most telling" (Burgess, 99 Novels, 53-4). First printing, with "First Edition" on copyright page, in first-issue dust jacket with author's photograph on the rear panel. Starosciak A30. Bixby A2.
Book fine; only lightest edge-wear to exceptionally bright unrestored dust jacket. A very nearly fine copy of this literary landmark.