8vo. Original black cloth (some spotting and discoloration to pastedowns and gutters, block edges very slightly spotted); original first issue dust-jacket printed in red, black and yellow with cropped photograph of Salinger on rear cover, flap priced at $3.00 (a few repairs to verso along top edge and front flap fold, spine panel lightly faded with  small dampstain near foot, flap folds a little rubbed, some light spotting on verso); quarter morocco folding case. 

 

FIRST EDITION. 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).