A riveting coming-of-age classic, became an international sensation upon its initial publication in 1956, and still stands out as a shocking and moving account of the way teenagers collide, often disastrously, against love and sex for the first time. This edition includes a foreword by author Emma Straub. Courtney Farrell is a disaffected, sexually precocious fifteen-year-old. She splits her time between Manhattan, where her father works in publishing, and Los Angeles, where her mother is a still-beautiful Hollywood actress. After a boarding-school crush on a female teacher ends badly, Courtney sets out to learn everything fast. Her first drink is a very dry martini, and her first kiss the beginning of a full-blown love affair with an older man.