The Catcher in the Rye

US Little, Brown (Boston, 16 July 1951) is the true first; the UK first (Hamish Hamilton, London, 1951, jacket by Fritz Wegner) is a separate first that follows the US. With this title the JACKET carries the identification weight: the first-state jacket WITH the Lotte Jacobi photograph precedes later-printing jackets, from which the photograph was dropped (traditionally said to be at Salinger's own request). Salinger almost never signed, so signed copies are scarce and routinely forged.