September 12, 2022, 10:58am
Let’s be honest: if you have £225,000 to spend on something as frivolous as a signed copy of The Catcher in the Rye instead of giving it to some nuns at a train station, Holden would definitely have considered you a phony. (“Goddam money. It always ends up making you blue as hell.”) Salinger also apparently “resentful of friends and family cashing in on the success of his 1951 novel” by, say, selling the edition he lovingly personalized. Nevertheless! If you’re a very rich Salinger stan, you can buy a very rare signed edition of the novel.
The inscription in the book—the only one that Salinger signed with his childhood nickname, Sonny—reads “To Charles Kirtz with every good wish from JD Salinger (extra greetings to Ada and Victor from Sonny Salinger) New York 10/18/56.” Charles was the grandson of Ann Agoos, who lived in the same apartment building as Salinger’s parents.
The sale is via Peter Harrington Books as part of Firsts: London’s rare book fair. And if you do buy it, at least have the decency to display it on the shared bookshelf in your prep school dorm so your roommate can pretend it’s his.
[via The Guardian]