We lost one of the American literary greats this past week. Fringe celebrates J.D. Salinger’s ineffable legacy with posts from writers who have been affected by his work.

Ashley Peterson eulogizes J.D. in her own words:

The first Salinger enthusiast I knew, which is to say, the first person I knew who read beyond Catcher in the Rye, was Sarah Worden.  We met in eighth grade drama class, shared a love of Dum Dum lollipops, and by twelfth grade were best friends.

By college I too had read past Catcher, and one summer decided to read even beyond what Salinger had allowed Little, Brown to provide.  Blissfully and thankfully unaware of the possibilities of interlibrary loan, a friend and I traveled to a handful of Virginia college libraries chasing copies of stories from McCalls, The Saturday Evening Post, The New Yorker.  We came close to catching them all, I believe.

Last Thursday, I went home and read the first half of “Raise High the Roof Beam, Carpenters.”    Is there a more comforting literary presence than Muriel Fedder’s father’s uncle, the tiny man in the silk top hat?  With his cigar, his broad smile, and his outsized farewell gestures buoying the rumpled Buddy Glass he called to mind for the first time The Great Northern’s senior most room service waiter.  When the small deaf-mute waved “vigorously” at Buddy—“a great, bon voyage, come-back-soon wave”—I flashed immediately to Special Agent Dale Cooper, lying prone with a gunshot wound to the torso on the floor of his hotel room in Twin Peaks, WA.  The uncomprehending waiter—elderly and smiling—locks his eyes on Coopers’, the smile broadening, and shakily-then-forcefully offers a thumbs up.

So endlessly comforting: the kindness of unwitting strangers.  J.D. Salinger created all sorts of characters and situations and marbles of wisdom that coupled with exposure during critically formative times offer me a varied and shifting set of comforts.

To conclude, the actor who played the room service waiter is named Hank Worden.  I in no way consider this a coincidence.