First Edition of "The Catcher in the Rye" by J.D. Salinger

The first U.S. edition of one of the truly great and enduring works of American fiction. Published by Little Brown & Company in 1951.

This is the first edition/first printing and is scarce as such. In very fine condition.

The superb binding is in crimson and white morocco and replicates the original pictorial dust wrapper which has become instantly recognisable to collectors of modern first editions. The original design was by Michael Mitchell.

This famous coming-of-age novel has been the subject of much commentary. The narrator and protagonist - 16 year old Holden Caulfield - simply disliked the superficiality, affectation, pretension and insincerity that he saw in everyone and everything he encountered. Quite understandable really? Bob Dylan read the book in 1961 and it is well documented that it influenced him. In his 1965 song “That’s alright Ma…” he uses the word ‘phony” in much the same way as Holden Caulfield. The word appears 50 odd times in the book!