The Catcher in the Rye by Salinger, J.D - 1951

Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1951. First edition. Hardcover. Very good. First edition of Salinger’s first and only novel, with the first-state dust-wrapper. Some wear to the extremities of the dust-wrapper and moderate even toning to the spine of the dust-wrapper. Price-clipped. Head and tail bumped, lower fore-corner bumped. A little cocked. With the ownership signature (in pencil) of M[orton] R. Goldsmith on the first free end-paper. Very good. The first-state dust-wrapper is marked by the cropping of the upper edge of Salinger’s head in his author-photo on the rear of the dust-wrapper; in later printings, this was removed altogether. The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger’s first and only novel, caused great waves upon its publication in the summer of 1951. It has been censored and excoriated for the salty language and sexual mores of its protagonist, Holden Caulfield; just as well, it is one of the best-selling books of the last century, and one of the most-widely read at school. Its dust-wrapper, which belongs to the instantly-recognized echelon of The Great Gatsby and Catch-22 (also taught widely at schools; can this be the common thread?), is here bright and rich. An indispensable part of any library of modern first editions. Morton Goldsmith with his wife Enid (née Frank; sister of author Waldo Frank) held a sort of artistic salon — notably attracting Boris Grigoriev, the Russian painter — in their home in Scarsdale, just north of New York City; Morton died in 1971, Enid in 1983. Fiction