Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1951. First edition. A Fine copy of the book in Near Fine dust jacket. Jacket with the spine a bit toned, as often, and two small amateur tap repairs to the verso. Rear panel a bit scratched and rubbed, but overall a very presentable copy of the work. With all relevant issue points, including original price (in the correct place on the flap), Salinger's hair touching the upper edge of the rear panel, and "First Edition" stated on the copyright page. Housed in a custom slipcase with chemise.

Salinger's novel was not the first coming-of-age story to highlight teenage angst, but it sits squarely at 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 Near Fine dust jacket. (Item #5775)