J. D. Salinger's only short story collection, gathering nine tales—including "A Perfect Day for Bananafish" and "For Esmé—with Love and Squalor"—that probe innocence, war trauma, and spiritual yearning beneath the polish of postwar American life.
Books mentioned in Nine Stories (6)
The Robe by Lloyd C. Douglas: “"She's sitting on her big, black butt reading 'The Robe.'" (Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut)”
Little Black Sambo by Helen Bannerman: “"Did you read 'Little Black Sambo'?" she said. (A Perfect Day for Bananafish)”
Fu Manchu by Sax Rohmer: “"my word for it came straight out of a French edition of Sax Rohmer's Fu Manchu books" (De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period)”
Die Zeit ohne Beispiel by Joseph Goebbels: “"It was a book by Goebbels, entitled 'Die Zeit Ohne Beispiel.'" (For Esmé—with Love and Squalor)”
Madame Bovary by Gustave Flaubert: “"Madame Bovary at Columbia Extension School... Madame Bovary takes a course in Television Appreciation." (Pretty Mouth and Green My Eyes)”
The Harvard Classics by Charles W. Eliot: “"I bought a complete set of the Harvard Classics—chiefly because Bobby said we didn't have room for them in our suite—and rather perversely read all fifty volumes." (De Daumier-Smith's Blue Period)”
Books that mention Nine Stories (1)
My Salinger Year by Joanna Rakoff: “Books so ubiquitous on the contemporary bookshelf I barely noticed them: The Catcher in the Rye, Franny and Zooey, Nine Stories.”