Coming up for auction this week at Heritage Auctions is this library book due date slip (remember those?) bearing the penciled signature of "J. Salinger." The worn card with seventeen other signatures dates from December 1959. And what was the famous 40-year-old author reading? Norman Forrest's Death Took a Publisher, a bibliomystery from 1936. Presumably this library card comes from a public library close to Cornish, New Hampshire. Salinger moved there in the early fifties and gradually slipped into a reclusive lifestyle. Quite an incredible Salinger collectible for the estimate of $800-$1,200 (much prettier and display-worthy than, say, the Salinger toilet up for auction on eBay last year). Online bidding has already begun and looks competitive. The live auction happens in New York on Thursday of this week.
