'The Catcher in the Rye', US first edition in first state dust jacket, together with an original signed Salinger letter

Jerome David Salinger (1951) The Catcher in the Rye , US first edition, first printing, published by Little, Brown and Company. Together with an original Salinger letter, signed by him. First issue dust jacket fullfilling all three first issue points: 1) Salinger s photograph appearing slightly cropped on the rear panel; 2) the photograph portrait is credited to Lotte Jacobi; and 3) the $ and 3 of the price is positioned directly above the shoulder of the R. The letter: typed letter signed in full as J.D. Salinger , written to his copy editor John E. Woodman at Little, Brown and Company. Measuring 8.5 inch x 11 inch; on one leaf of watermarked Corrasable Bond paper, R.D. 2, Windsor, VT, dated October 14, 1962. Within, the author acknowledges receipt of page proofs for Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: An Introduction . Accompanied by the original transmittal envelope bearing philatelic markings and letter-opened at left. Featuring expected letter folds to typed leaf, with minor creasing throughout. Together with a photocopy of Woodman s original letter to Salinger dated four days earlier describing the proofs as remarkably clean , and praising its contents. Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour: an Introduction , was the final book-length work of fiction published in Salinger s lifetime. It is comprised of two novellas set seventeen years apart, and are both concerned with Seymour Glass, the eldest son of Salinger s fictional Glass family. Originally published in the New Yorker in 1955 and 1959, the two stories were reprinted as an anthology by Little, Brown and Company in 1963, just months ahead of the present correspondence. Condition of the book: a near fine copy and very close to fine for the harshest of judges. There are no previous owners inscriptions, no stamps, no bookplates. No bumps to the boards, no lean. The lettering on the spine is NOT rubbed out and clearly legible. Endpapers clean. The dust jacket is in amazing condition and one of the best we have ever seen. Crucially, this is in the original state with NO restorations whatsoever. It is not price clipped, clean with no tears, no chips, no rubbing. Light browning to spine commensurate with age and no fading of the red colour. A beautiful copy. The Catcher in the Rye needs no introduction. Being read in schools, it is one of the landmark novels of 20th century American fiction with global sales exceeding one million copies anually. It has defined and captured the timeless mood of teenage existential angst and that is why the novel has retained its fascination to young readers around the globe to date. First and Fine. …