Time included The Catcher in the Rye on its 100 best English-language novels list in 2005. The list was assembled by Time critics Lev Grossman and Richard Lacayo and covered novels published in English between 1923 and 2005. Salinger's 1951 novel qualified because it was both English-language and published within that period.
The list is often confused with other literary rankings. Modern Library also named The Catcher in the Rye among its 100 best English-language novels of the twentieth century, while the BBC's 2003 Big Read survey placed it at number 15. Those are separate lists with different dates and methods.
The novel's inclusion reflects its lasting influence rather than a formal prize. Its first-person portrait of Holden Caulfield, teenage alienation, grief, and resistance to adult hypocrisy helped make it a central American coming-of-age novel. Time's list was published more than five decades after the book first appeared.