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. 

Claire Blechman writes: 

When I lived in New York, I was friends with a girl who worked at Harold Ober Associates, J.D. Salinger’s literary agency. We asked her one night (over Arepas at a tiny restaurant in the Village) what it was like on the inside. She told us the agency received bags and bags of fanmail for Salinger, which languished unopened in the office.  

 There was in fact a specific list of instructions on how to deal with Salinger-related issues. Most were variations on a theme: don’t ask, don’t tell. His address was a state secret: only two people in the whole agency knew it. The only mail he ever received from them was residual checks.

 “J.D. Salinger hates you,” she said. Me, and you, and everyone you know.

 I decided to read Catcher in the Rye my senior year of college. I was lifeguarding with a particularly vacant muscle-head from the lacrosse team who went by his last name: Pearl. I asked Pearl what the last book he read was. “Catcher in the Rye,” he said. It was his... more »