The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger, J. D. [Jerome David] - 1951

Boston: Little, Brown & Co, 1951. First edition. Fine/Very Good +. A Fine copy of the book, with bright spine gilt and clean cloth. In a Very Good+ dust jacket, with the spine toned and minor wear at the extremities (one small closed tear at the top of the spine). With all relevant issue points. 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 in Very Good + dust jacket.