Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1951. First edition. First edition, first printing, handsomely bound, of the seminal novel, one of the great works of American fiction. Octavo (196 x 132 mm). Recent red morocco, spine lettered in gilt, top edge gilt. A Fine copy.

Salinger's novel was not the first coming-of-age story to highlight teenage angst, but it sits squarely as the pinnacle of those efforts. It offers Holden Caulfield's perspective on school, New York City, sexuality, family and friends, and, of course, phonies, with a subtext on alienation and loneliness running throughout the book. “In American writing, there are three perfect books, which seem to speak to every reader and condition: 'Huckleberry Finn,' 'The Great Gatsby,' and 'The Catcher in the Rye.' Of the three, only 'Catcher' defines an entire region of human experience: it is—in French and Dutch as much as in English—the handbook of the adolescent heart” (The New Yorker). Fine (Item #4635)

Price: $4,500