SALINGER, J. D.

£110,000 · Offered by Peter Harrington · No longer available

Franny and Zooey. First edition, presentation copy, inscribed by the reclusive author to Lillian Ross on the front free endpaper: "To Lillian, With love and great and special pleasure, Jerry. Cornish, N.H. 7/29/61." Presentation copies of any of Salinger's few published works are famously rare, and only two inscribed copies of this title have appeared at auction.Ross and Salinger met at the New Yorker. They were introduced by the editor William Shawn, the dedicatee of Franny and Zooey, with whom Ross had a long affair. A staff writer at the magazine for seven decades, Ross developed a novelistic reporting style in the 1950s which became an important influence on the New Journalism. She and Salinger began a correspondence in 1957: Ross sent Salinger a letter praising "Zooey", and Salinger replied praising Ross's profile of Ernest Hemingway. They soon became close friends. When Ross applied to adopt a child in 1965, Salinger wrote a recommendation, and he and Shawn became godfathers to her son Erik. Ross later wrote that "When it comes to writing, along with what Bill taught me, I've learned the most from Salinger. He's one of the best we've ever had".Following Salinger's presentation, Ross wrote enthusiastically to the author: "I've been carrying the book all over town with me since it arrived this morning. It's perfect, naturally, inside and out... The jacket looks terrific - there's no way of talking about it; it's too good. What you say on it should hold a lot of people up

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