270 of 410 lots
270
SALINGER, J.D. (1919-2010). The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1951. FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE. IN THE FIRST ISSUE DUST JACKET.
Estimate: $3,000-$4,000
Sold
$2,750
Live Auction
Fine Printed Books & Manuscripts, including Americana
Description

SALINGER, J.D. (1919-2010). The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1951.


8vo. Publisher’s black cloth, spine gilt-lettered (slight wear to extremities, minor creasing to spine, some spotting to edges); original first issue dust jacket (separation along front flap panel fold, some toning, soiling and chipping, with loss to "th" in "the" and and touching the "E" in "CATCHER" on spine). Provenance: Harry Weber (signature, October 1958). 

FIRST EDITION, FIRST ISSUE, without “Reprinted July 1951” on copyright page. IN THE FIRST ISSUE DUST JACKET with the $3.00 price on the front flap and with the Lotte Jacobi photo credit on Salinger's portrait on the rear panel. The novel’s protagonist, Holden Caulfield, has entered the pantheon of American literary heroes. “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" (Anthony Burgess, 99 Novels, pp. 53-54).