Teddy
- Teddy
- J.D. Salinger
- New Yorker Magazine, New York, Jan. 31, 1953
Due to its unhappy ending, Teddy is definitely one of Salinger’s most controversial stories. This 1953 New Yorker magazine is the true first printing. Later the same year (1953), Teddy was incorporated into the collection Nine Stories. Harper’s magazine, in its review of Nine Stories, said of Teddy “…absolutely unforgettable …it staggered its readers.”
This magazine is in good plus to very good condition. It has the normal front cover fold from mailing and wear mostly in the form of creases to the spine. The corners are mildly bumped, but the interior of the magazine is bright and undamaged.
These New Yorker magazines with Salinger stories are getting harder to find these days, but a couple of copies of this one are for sale on eBay right now for about $200 including shipping. They both have a variety of minor condition issues, and I would rate them about the same as this copy.
Some other common condition issues with these older magazines are moisture damage, browning interior pages, and missing pages. It is also quite common for the covers and/or the middle page to be torn loose from the staples.
Normally I include a photograph of the rear cover — they always have such kitsch and splashy colour ads. But this time I thought I’d show an interior black and white advertisement. This Magnavox ad for the ‘Greatest T.V. Achievement in Years’ is awesome, isn’t it? Many folks collect these old New Yorkers just for their ads.
Many folks also collect new New Yorker magazines because the short fiction in them could well make them the valuable New Yorkers of the future. Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain first appeared in the New Yorker in 1997 and is now next to impossible to find. If you were lucky enough to find one, I would expect the cost to be over $150.
