James Salter, Writer

 I had not heard of James Salter until prison. There I read his The Hunters. He lived up to the hype. So, here I am joining the crowd and saying read this guy.

Jeffrey Meyers has read more deeply of Salter than I have, and his James Salter’s Strange Career prompted this post. Who knows when I will get to my own notes on The Hunters?

 Salter had rare combination of talents and achievements. He was a fighter pilot and Francophile, downhill skier and mountain climber, novelist and screenwriter, expatriate and traveler, epicurean and sensualist. A war hero himself, he hero-worshipped air aces and astronauts, champions on fast snow and high peaks, European directors and literate editors. His tribute to William Styron revealed his own values: “He was a person of conviction regarding what was good and what was not in the world and also in literature, especially the novel. He became what he always dreamed of and worked for, a "writer,” a famous writer.

For those of us who wanted to write, who thought we could not give the essay a read.

 

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