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Nine Stories

by J.D. Salinger

First Edition | Little, Brown and Company | 1953

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In 1948, J.D. Salinger wrote a story so good that the New Yorker requested first rights to publish every subsequent story he would write. Five years later, the famed “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” was given first billing in Nine Stories, Salinger’s story collection follow-up to his smash hit novel, The Catcher in the Rye. If Catcher in the Rye earned Salinger his membership in the annals of literary history, Nine Stories cemented it, establishing him as a writer with uncommon abilities to draw out the joys and sorrows of the human experience. The collection explores themes that were particularly poignant in the aftermath of WWII (in which Salinger himself fought), complicating conceptions of innocence and culpability, violence and trauma, death, madness, genius, and love. Many of these stories — seven of which were published in the New Yorker, per the magazine’s wishes — are classics among not only readers but writers as well, who study their innovative voice, their structure, and their play between the dark and the light.

The stories in Nine Stories are not only linked thematically, but by family ties. “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” introduces readers to the Glass family, who would go on to occupy Salinger’s creative mind for the rest of his literary career. Seymour Glass is a veteran with all the hallmarks of PTSD, which displays itself in bouts of strange and concerning behavior. He returns in many of Salinger’s later stories: Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, Seymour: An Introduction, and Franny and Zooey. Likewise, other members of the Glass family weave through the pages of Salinger’s various stories and collections — Franny and Zooey Glass, Walter Glass, and Beatrice Glass Tannenbaum, to name a few. “Buddy” Glass, who narrates Zooey and is a protagonist in Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters, and Seymour: An Introduction, is revealed to be the writer of at least three stories from Nine Stories, and is considered by many to be a stand-in for Salinger.

While pieces of truth from Salinger’s life are scattered throughout his stories, the author himself was famously resistant to public perception. He published his last story, “Hapworth 16, 1924,” in 1965, but continued writing for years, reportedly completing many more novels and stories for his own pleasure or to be published posthumously. Some of these featured members of the endlessly compelling Glass family. It is widely agreed that Salinger’s fascination with the creation of these Glass lives, loves, and tragedies influenced the future of the literary landscape and redefined the possibilities of what a short story can do.

Come touch a piece of this history in the Dawn Treader’s first edition of Nine Stories, in which you can see Seymour Glass’s very earliest appearance between the boards of a book.

The Catcher in the Rye

by J. D. Salinger

First Edition, First Printing, Later Dust Jacket | Little, Brown and Company | 1951

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This first edition, first printing of The Catcher in the Rye is a superstar on the Dawn Treader shelves. Since its publication in 1951, Salinger’s only novel has become an infamous problem child on high school reading lists. It has been banned, challenged, and removed from lists and libraries across the United States, but readers can’t stay away — it remains one of the most commonly assigned books in English classes, and around 1 million copies are sold each year.

Certain first editions of The Catcher in the Rye can be valued at up to $25,000 (and in one instance, $65,000!), depending on their condition and whether or not they wear the original dust jacket (first and second printings of the novel feature a photo of Salinger stretched across the back of the jacket, but the famously reclusive author requested its removal after he found himself increasingly present in the literary spotlight). Why is a first edition of The Catcher in the Rye so valuable? First editions in general are considered the closest a reader can get to the version of a book seen through production by its original author. Rarity of early printings and popularity of subsequent editions are also factors, and The Catcher in the Rye has certainly enjoyed its day — or century — in the sun.

Some credit the novel’s continued popularity to the “Streisand Effect,” a phenomenon where something is sought after explicitly because so many people are trying to keep it under wraps. Could repeated attempts to keep The Catcher in the Rye out of students’ hands be a reason why it is so often found in them? The novel of troubled adolescence has also caught a certain notoriety after being linked to several high profile violent crimes. Former security guard Mark David Chapman was found with a copy on the night he shot John Lennon. Inside, he had written, “This is my statement,” and signed the note “Holden Caulfield.” Robert John Bardo was carrying a copy of The Catcher in the Rye when he killed Rebecca Schaeffer in her home in 1989. It was also one of several books found in John Hinckley Jr.’s hotel room on the night he attempted to assassinate Ronald Reagan. The question of how much influence the novel had over these killers’ psyches — and how much influence these crimes have had over its popularity and sales — has been hotly debated.

Despite a history marred with censorship and allegations of criminal influence, The Catcher in the Rye remains a stalwart of the American literary canon. Next time you’re in town, stop by the Dawn Treader to take a look at our historic copy!