Subject: First Bibles: Was Re: Neither a Borrower nor Lender Be
From: citycabn (citycabn@gateway.net)
Date: Tue Mar 21 2000 - 12:18:20 EST
>Latest count of paperback catchers is over a dozen including two first
>signet eds and some international versions including "Il giovane
>Holden." My first catcher was indeed an early signet printing lifted
>from my brother's bookshelf and never returned! will
>
As has been probably fairly evident, my allegiance, if one has to have such
a thing, is to the post-"Teddy" period: yes, the great glorious Glass
years. (Scottie's shaking his head, wondering when I'm coming in for a
series of sessions to straighten _this_ out.)
Which is not to say I never read _Catcher_, reread _Catcher_, carried
_Catcher_ with me like a Bible, in my demented mind was that boy.
So: _Catcher_: the probable fly paper that caught most of us all and soon
we were trying to muck around in this four-book world created by JDS. My
first _Catcher_, if I'm right after visiting the very dusty attic of memory,
was a Modern Library edition, lacking a dustjacket, owned by my mother. (I
always recall, in thinking of _Catcher_, that JDS says: "TO MY MOTHER". )
My _own_ first _Catcher_ was that controversial Bantam edition of
indeterminate color (THANK YOU MEREDITH for coming to my (and Cecilia's)
defense) which I'll call maroon/barn red (as a bow to will's wife and her
"color checks" (I love it when fishes drop such confidences into their
posts)). (Another further off to the side aside: I recall in the late 60s,
early 70s (that's 1860s, 1870s, for those of you whose birth post-dates
Richard M. Nixon's reign) that one could buy _all_ four JDS books in the
Bantam editions in a nice little _boxed set_. Ah, I wish I still had that.
(Not that I recall anything on the box itself (no photos of JDS, no message
from our author. It probably just had his name and the titles of the four
books and well, as you can see, I have some unspecified longing for it,
along the lines of wanting to once again to hear the voice of the girl I was
in love with in Spring, 1869: Nancy, or Nan. She liked JDS too. But it was
her incredibly beautiful older sister--the man/boy slayer (Blythe)--who in
later years actually knew who "that bastard Rilke" was (I was two years
older than Nan: actually she was my younger sister's best friend), and I
was the first boy who....(well, this is getting too personal--let's get back
to editions of _Catcher_.
The only, sole copy of the book I own today rests on my lap as I type this.
It is (new paragraph):
The thirty-six printing of the Little, Brown & Company hardback edition,
with a dust jacket which I _assume_ replicates the original _sans_ that
photo on the back which JDS soon regretted. (Carousel horse, Manhattan-like
skyline vignette in rear, wash of red, with the title in yellow, and on the
lower front of cover I quote: a novel by J.D. SALINGER.) Do we know who
wrote the dust flap copy? The omniscient front flap and half the back? And
then JDS himself makes a guest appearance with a few words. They seem
cobbled together. I guess I could quote them for those who don't have a
dust jacket (and still avoid the wrath of the lawyers). Hell, I'll just
type up the entire "author bio". Yes, word for..., comma for..., starting
now:
J.D. Salinger was born in New York City in 1919 and attended Manhattan
public schools, a military academy in Pennsylvania and three colleges (no
degrees). "A happy tourist's year in Europe," he writes, "when I was
eighteen and nineteen. In the Army from '42 to '46, most of the time with
the Fourth Division.
"I've been writing since I was fifteen or so. My short stories have
appeared in a number of magazines over the last ten years, mostly--and most
happily--in _The New Yorker_. I worked on _The Catcher in the Rye_, on and
off, for ten years."
It's me again. The price has been snipped so I can't help Paul with that
data project he's got going. I must say though before I leave this keyboard
that I clearly recall that the Bantam edition of _Catcher_ was NOT textured.
Perhaps there's a difference between USA and Canadian editions. Or your
printing had some sort of different paper stock for the cover.
As for data, I propose including (if Paul didn't), the age when first read,
and the last time read. Okay, I first read it at 16--my Mother gave it to
me and it was like totally over my head. Nothing. I next read it the
summer we moved to California, summer of '68, (I was 17 and 1/2, just out of
diapers) and _presto_, you know the rest. The last time I read it was in
Spring of '74. As part of preparing for a Master's Orals on JDS. Since
joining Bananafish in January of '99, I have peaked into now and again for
references to an occasional post, but , no, not cover to cover since '74.
Okay, enough.
Just want to end by saying: I miss Louise.
--Bruce
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