"The Catcher in the Rye", by J.D. Salinger, first edition published by Little & Brown, Boston, in original dust jacket. Copyright 1951 by the author; stated Twenty-First Printing; late 1950s-early 1960s with '$4.50' on the front flap of the dust jacket.

Un-clipped original dust jacket in mylar cover, hard boards, original publisher's cloth, gold stamped spine (heavy shelf wear); 5.1/2" x 8.1/4"; "Special Services. 7/9/63" is ink written on the front endpaper, residue of removed labels on the back endpaper and inside back cover [no library stamps]; 277 pages, page #3/4 has a missing corner [see photo]; some soiling, wear, rounded page corners, good/ very good condition.

J.D. Salinger was born in New York City in 1919 and attended Manhatten public school, a military academy in Pennsylvania and three colleges (no degrees). "A happy tourist's year in Europe," he writes, "when I was eighteen and nineteen. In the Army from '42 to '46, most of the time with the Fourth Division.

"I've been writing since I was fifteen or so. My short stories have appeared in a number of magazines over the last ten years, mostly --and most happily -- in The New Yorker. I worked on The Catcher in the Rye, on and off, for ten years."

"The highly successful Catcher is J. D. Salinger's only published novel. It is narrated by seventeen-year-old Holden Caulfield, a schoolboy in rebellion against the dubious values of the adult world.

In 1949, while "recovering" in a California sanatorium, 17-year-old Holden relates events that occurred during three December days in 1948--when he was sixteen. Within this part of the story, Holden frequently flashes back to experiences and people from earlier in his life.

Superficially the story of a young man's expulsion from yet another school, The Catcher in the Rye is a perceptive study of one individual's understanding of his human condition. Holden Caulfield, a teenager growing up in 1950s New York, has been expelled school for poor achievement once again. In an attempt to deal with this he leaves school a few days prior to the end of term, and goes to New York to 'take a vacation' before returning to his parents' inevitable wrath. Told as a monologue, the book describes Holden's thoughts and activities over these few days, during which he describes a developing nervous breakdown, symptomized by his bouts of unexplained depression, impulsive spending and generally odd, erratic behavior, prior to his eventual nervous collapse.

However, during his psychological battle, life continues on around Holden as it always had, with the majority of people ignoring the 'madman stuff' that is happening to him - until it begins to encroach on their well defined social codes. Progressively through the novel we are challenged to think about society's attitude to the human condition - does society have an 'ostrich in the sand' mentality, a deliberate ignorance of the emptiness that can characterize human existence? And if so, when Caulfield begins to probe and investigate his own sense of emptiness and isolation, before finally declaring that the world is full of 'phonies' with each one out for their own phony gain, is Holden actually the one who is going insane, or is it society which has lost its mind for failing to see the hopelessness of their own lives?

When we are honest we can see within ourselves suppressed elements of the forces operating within Holden Caulfield, and because of that I would recommend this thought provoking novel as a fascinating and enlightening description of our human condition. ..."

"Ever since its publication in 1951, J.D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye has served as a firestorm for controversy and debate. Critics have argued the moral issues raised by the book and the context in which it is presented. Some have argued that Salinger's tale of the human condition is fascinating and enlightening....

Generally, critics view the novel as Holden Caulfield's melodramatic struggle to survive in the adult world, a transition that he was supposed to make during his years at preparatory school. Some critics will point to the fact that Holden has flunked out of three Pennsylvania prep schools, and use it to symbolize the fact that he is not truly ready for adulthood (Davis 318). David Stevenson commented that the novel was written "as the boy's comment, half-humorous, half agonizing, concerning his attempt to recapture his identity and his hopes for playing a man-about-town for a lost, partially tragic, certainly frenetic weekend" (216). Reviewer Charles Kegel commented that the novel could be read as Holden Caulfield's "quest for communicability with his fellow man, and the hero's first person after-the-fact narration indicates . . . he has been successful in his quest" (53).
Though considered by most to be a tragedy, The Catcher in the Rye is found by some critics to be humorous, witty, and clever. The use of Chaplin-like incidents serves to keep the story hovering in ambivalence between comedy and tragedy. Whenever a character is nearing the point of no return in a Salinger piece, it is usually done by route of the comic (Stevenson 216). Other commentators have noted that much of the humor in The Catcher in the Rye comes from Holden's misconceptions about adulthood."

US: Priority (c.2-8 days) ------------ $18.50
Canada: Priority (c.2-6 weeks) ---- $32.50
World: Priority (c.2-8 weeks) ----- $45.50