DS, signed “J. D. Salinger,” one page both sides, 8.5 x 14, February 25, 1964. Agreement between Salinger and the publisher Ediciones AT of Barcelona regarding “the work by J. D. Salinger entitled: Franny and Zooey,” in which the author grants the “sole and exclusive license to translate, print, publish and sell the said work in volume form only in a regular trade edition in the Catalan language.” Especially interesting are the additional terms added at the end of the standard form which reflect Salinger’s demands for privacy: “It is understood by the Publisher that no photographs may be used on the cover or jacket or in any connection with the book. No photographs should be used in promotional copy or advertising. No biographical material may be used for promotion or advertising.” Expected document wear, small edge separations at folds, and paper loss to upper corners (not affecting any text), otherwise fine condition.
Salinger’s intense demand for privacy—no photographs, no biography—is certainly the most striking element of this publishing contract. He had famously withdrawn to Cornish, New Hampshire, nearly a decade earlier and by this time was essentially absent from any public life. His two short stories, ‘Franny’ and ‘Zooey,’ first appeared separately in the New Yorker in 1955 and 1957. They were published together in book form in 1961, and Salinger’s private nature is inherent even to the first English edition of Franny and Zooey. On the dust jacket flap of the first edition, Salinger wrote: ‘It is my rather subversive opinion that a writer's feelings of anonymity-obscurity are the second most valuable property on loan to him during his working years.’ Salinger’s autograph is rare in any format and this is an ideal example in all respects—a rare publishing document for a well-known work enhanced by its explicit connection to the author’s legendary reclusiveness. Pre-certified PSA/DNA.
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