8vo. (Minor soiling to endleaves.) Original black cloth (spine slightly leaned); original first issue dust jacket printed in red, black and yellow with cropped photograph of Salinger on rear cover, flap priced at $3.00 (small dampstaining to bottom edge, minor chipping, old adhesive remnants to flaps and verso). Provenance: Beverly Book Shelves Rental Libraries (library stamps). 

 

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).