By KATIE ZEZIMA
c.2010 New York Times News Service
CORNISH, N.H. – His most famous character, Holden Caulfield, said it was impossible to find a place that’s “nice and peaceful,” but J.D. Salinger may have found something close for himself in the woods of this tiny town.
Here Salinger was just Jerry, a quiet man who arrived early to church suppers, nodded hello while buying a newspaper at the general store and wrote a thank-you note to the fire department after it extinguished a blaze and helped save his papers and writings.
Despite his reputation, Salinger “was not a recluse,” said Nancy Norwalk, a librarian at the Philip Read Memorial Library in Plainfield, which Salinger would frequent. “He was a townsperson.”