Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour - by J D Salinger (Paperback)

About the Book

"Published by Little, Brown and Company, January 1963"--Title page verso.

Book Synopsis

The last book-length work of fiction by J. D. Salinger published in his lifetime collects two novellas about "one of the liveliest, funniest, most fully realized families in all fiction" (New York Times).

These two novellas, set seventeen years apart, are both concerned with Seymour Glass, the eldest son of J. D. Salinger's fictional Glass family, as recalled by his closest brother, Buddy.

"He was a great many things to a great many people while he lived, and virtually all things to his brothers and sisters in our somewhat outsized family. Surely he was all real things to us: our blue-striped unicorn, our double-lensed burning glass, our consultant genius, our portable conscience, our supercargo, and our one full poet..."

Review Quotes

"He has an enormous cultural importance - you basically can't write about anyone between the ages of five and 35 without accidentally referencing Salinger."

--Jonathan Safran Foer

"I don't think there's ever been anything like these characters in American literature."

--Jennifer Lawrence, actress

"I sat down and read it in a day seven years ago on a trip and it has stayed with me ever since. It showed me how writing can be very simple and straightforward and still effective."

--Emma Stone, actress

"Salinger's masterworks were the stories he wrote about the Glass family. Their humanity grabs hold of me.Salinger took such care with his characters and wrote with such warmth."

--Emily St. John Mandel, novelist and essayist

"There are passages and phrases in Salinger that will stay with me for ever; he is one of those rare writers whose work can actually be called "life-changing".

--Jarvis Cocker, singer and musician

"No American writer will ever have a more alert ear, a more attentive eye, or a more ardent heart than Salinger's."--The New Yorker

"Perhaps the best book by the foremost stylist of his generation."--The New York Times

About the Author

J. D. Salinger was born in New York City on January 1, 1919, and died in Cornish, New Hampshire, on January 27, 2010. His stories appeared in many magazines, most notably The New Yorker. Between 1951 and 1963 he produced four book-length works of fiction: The Catcher in the Rye; Nine Stories; Franny and Zooey; and Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters and Seymour--An Introduction. The books have been embraced and celebrated throughout the world and have been credited with instilling in many a lifelong love of reading.