British reviewers were generally unimpressed. The Spectator (August 17, 1951) considered it to be “inconclusive” in theme and a bit too “showy.” Times Literary Supplement (September 7, 1951) complains that the “endless stream of blasphemy and obscenity” gets boring after the first chapter.
The novel did well commercially but was not the most popular work of fiction in 1951. It was on the New York Times best-seller list for thirty weeks in all but never climbed higher than fourth. Herman Wouk’s The Caine Mutiny and James Jones’ From Here to Eternity, for example, sold more copies initially.
As time passed, however, Salinger’s work continued to sell and to attract critical interest. Jack Salzman (in New Essays on The Catcher in the Rye, published by Cambridge University Press) points out that, by 1954, Catcher could be purchased in translation in Denmark, Germany, France, Israel, Italy, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, and the Netherlands. That international popularity is especially interesting considering the novel’s dependence on the vernacular. The American version sold 1.5 million copies, mostly in paperback, within its first ten years. Eudora Welty (New York Times, April 5, 1953) gave Salinger a critical boost in a very favorable review of his collection, Nine Stories. James E. Miller (J.D. Salinger, 1965) was an important, relatively early supporter. Literally scores of critical works have praised, scrutinized, and dissected the novel.
