The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger Signed Early Printing

Boston: Little, Brown & Company, 1952. 1st Edition. Hardcover. Signed by Author. Salinger, J.D. THE CATCHER IN THE RYE. Signed. Boston: Little Brown, 1952. A fine SIGNED copy of the March, 1952 reprint of the first edition. [The first issue was July, 1951]. 8vo., 277pp., black cloth, gilt. Salinger’s remarkable first book, neatly signed in black fountain pen at the top of the title page. An excellent example of Salinger’s elusive signature – The binding is fine; the dust jacket is in very good condition or better with the $3.00 price present & nine reviews on the back panel replacing Salinger’s photo after the first few early printings at his insistence. Custom clamshell case in very fine condition.

The probable High Spot in Modern American Lit collecting, “The Catcher In The Rye is undoubtedly a 20th-century classic. It struck a popular note, particularly with young readers, who strongly identified with Holden Caulfield and his yearning for lost innocence. Salinger’s novel was, and continues to be, a phenomenal success” (Parker, 300). “This novel is a key-work of the nineteen-fifties 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” (Anthony Burgess, 99 Novels , 53-4).