"TO LILLIAN, WITH LOVE AND GREAT AND SPECIAL PLEASURE": FIRST EDITION OF SALINGER'S FRANNY AND ZOOEY, RARE PRESENTATION/ASSOCIATION COPY INSCRIBED BY HIM TO LILLIAN ROSS, NEW YORKER STAFF WRITER

SALINGER, J.D. Franny and Zooey. Boston: Little, Brown, (1961). Octavo, original gray cloth, original dust jacket. Housed in a custom chemise and clamshell box. $150,000.

First edition of Salinger's third book, presentation/association copy, inscribed by him to his close friend Lillian Ross, staff writer at the New Yorker, "To Lillian, with love and great and special pleasure. Jerry Cornish, N.H. 7/29/61." Inscribed copies of Salinger's books are notoriously rare, and the close association this copy has with Salinger makes it particularly desirable.

Salinger planned a series of stories on Franny, Zooey and the Glass family. "I've been waiting for them most of my life," he wrote, "and I think I have fairly decent, monomaniacal plans to finish them with due care and all-available skill." "Franny" originally appeared in The New Yorker in 1955; "Zooey" followed two years later. To John Updike, "Salinger's conviction that our inner lives greatly matter peculiarly qualifies him to sing of an America where, for most of us, there seems little to do but to feel" (New York Times). Stated "First Edition" on copyright page. Salinger met Lillian Ross through New Yorker editor William Shawn, to whom Salinger dedicated Franny and Zooey. Out of Shawn's faith in Salinger's work—Shawn would publish 13 Salinger stories between 1946 and 1965—grew a great and close friendship, one Shawn shared with Ross in 1957 when she sought to send Salinger a letter in praise of "Zooey." The two traded fan letters—her letter on "Zooey" led to Salinger's on her Hemingway profile—inaugurating a friendship that lasted through many publications by each author, occasional dinners and family visits, and many epistolary exchanges for decades on topics literary, professional and personal. In 1965, Salinger wrote a 3-page legal affidavit supporting Ross' efforts to adopt a child; both Salinger and Shawn were co-godfathers to Erik, the son she adopted.

In her memoir Here But Not Here, Ross writes of her working life and love life with Shawn: "When it comes to writing, along with what Bill taught me, I've learned the most from Salinger. He's one of the best we've ever had." She noted that "Of all the scores of writers Bill dealt with over the years, including some that were old friends, only Salinger would go out of his way to be helpful to Bill without asking for anything in return.

Ross wrote to Salinger to thank him for this inscribed copy: "I've been carrying the book all over town with me since it arrived this morning. It's perfect, naturally, inside and out… The jacket looks terrific—there's no way of talking about it; it's too good. What you say on it should hold a lot of people up for a long time, even if 'distinguished' fellows here and there try to put a little carbon monoxide back into the fresh air. I cherish the inscription. In fact, things are looking up all over, it makes it seem, now that the book is here. I'm going to read it backwards. Thank you and bless you and Love, Lillian." Stated "First Edition" on copyright page. Bixby A4a. Starosciak A40. Bruccoli & Clark I:315.

Book and jacket with very mild toning to extremities, jacket with a bit of soiling to rear panel. Near-fine condition.