 In 1953 , Salinger published a collection of seven stories from The New Yorker ( " Bananafish " among them ) , as well as two that the magazine had rejected . The collection was published as Nine Stories in the United States , and " For Esmé — with Love and Squalor " in the UK , after one of Salinger 's best @-@ known stories . The book received grudgingly positive reviews , and was a financial success — " remarkably so for a volume of short stories " , according to Hamilton . Nine Stories spent three months on the New York Times Bestseller list . Already tightening his grip on publicity , though , Salinger refused to allow publishers of the collection to depict his characters in dust jacket illustrations , lest readers form preconceived notions of them . 
