The Catcher in the Rye

I liked it very much indeed, more than anything for a long time. – Samuel Beckett
As captivating, bold and transgressive as ever… Encountering the first sentence of The Catcher in the Rye made the world burst into colour. It had never occurred to me that writing could make your blood fizz with delight … What’s most remarkable about the book is how it alters its meanings depending on the reader’s age. Only the greatest novels manage this alchemy. The Catcher is in the same league as Ulysses or The Handmaid’s Tale in having built into its texture a perpetual self-regeneration * Guardian *
He wrote a perfect novel and it changed US culture forever * Independent *
His work meant a lot to me when I was a young person and his writing still sings. – Dave Eggers
It was a very pure voice he had. There was no one like him – Martin Amis
He was the poet of youthful alienation before youth really knew what that was * Sunday Times *
Tough-tender… It charts the miseries and ecstasies of an adolescent rebel [in] acidly humorous deadpan satire * TIME *

J. D. Salinger was born in 1919 and died in January 2010. He grew up in New York City and wrote short stories from an early age. His breakthrough came in 1948 with the publication of ‘A Perfect Day for Bananafish’ in The New Yorker.

The Catcher in the Rye, published in 1951, was his first and only novel. It remains one of the most translated, taught, and reprinted texts, and has sold over 65 million copies worldwide.

He went on to write three further, critically acclaimed, best-selling works of fiction:

• Franny and Zooey
• For Esme - With Love And Squalor
• Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, and Seymour - An Introduction

Salinger continued to write throughout his life and left behind a large body of unpublished work.

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