J. D. Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1951....

Click the image to load the highest resolution version.

Sold on Oct 16, 2008 for:

Sign-in or Join (free & quick)

Get one of these:

Share this lot

Track Item Printable Auction Results

Sell One of These

Description

Auction Info

Guides & Info

Description

J. D. Salinger. The Catcher in the Rye. Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1951.

First edition. Octavo. 277 pages.

Publisher's black cloth with titles stamped in gold on the spine. Original first state dust jacket with Lotte Jacobi photo credit on the rear panel of the dust jacket. Housed in a custom black cloth slipcase with a leather spine title plate lettered in gilt. Light shelf wear to boards. Front board slightly bowed. Gilt titles partially rubbed from the spine. Bump to spine ends. Textblock edges show a few stains. A tight copy. The jacket is a trifle worn at the edges and spine ends, with a small stain near the spine tail and a dark vertical tape stain to each flap, where presumably the jacket was attached to a sleeve of some kind. An attractive first edition of Salinger's classic in very good condition.

"If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth." So begins the book that has been the center of controversy in American high schools since 1960. It has the dubious distinction of being the most censored book in schools and libraries across the nation, selling 65 million copies along the way, "for Chrissake."