For more than fifty years, Catcher, easily the most banned book of the twentieth century American canon, the favorite target of conservative school systems, earnest parents groups, and strident church organizations, has thrived on its reputation as an underground text, passed among ardent readers with cult-like fanaticism, hard core fans who have found in the lonely misfit Holden Caulfield a companion, a friend for life. The essays in this volume offer an examination of the novel's impact over time, and include discussions of the reach of Salinger's influence, Catcher's tumultuous history, and the culture and politics of the post-war era.

On The catcher in the rye: an American Koan -- Salinger and Holden, disappearing in plain sight: biography of J.D. Salinger -- The Paris review perspective -- Catching Holden through a cultural studies lens -- Holden at sixty: reading Catcher after the age of irony -- The Catcher in the rye: "Paul's case" in anticipation of Holden Caulfield -- Critical mass: Holden among the critics -- Memories of Holden Caulfield -- and of Miss Greenwood -- J.D. Salinger, movelist of modern anomie, dead at 91 -- J.D. Salinger -- "Holden Caulfield in Doc Martens": The catcher in the rye and My so-called life -- Holden Caulfield's legacy -- The catcher in the rye and all: is the age of formative books over -- Cherished and cursed: toward a social history of The catcher in the rye -- Reviewers, critics, and The catcher in the rye -- Catcher in and out of history -- On first looking into Chapman's Holden: speculations on a murder -- The language of The catcher in the rye -- The saint as a young man: a reappraisal of The catcher in the rye -- In memoriam: Allie Caulfield in The catcher in the rye -- Symbolic resolution in The catcher in the rye: the cap, the carrousel, and the American west -- The burning carousel and the carnivalesque: subversion and transcendence at the close of The catcher in the rye.