James Salter

Captain Cleve Connell has already made a name for himself among pilots when he arrives in Korea during the war there to fly the newly operational F-86 fighters against the Soviet MIGs. His goal, like that of every fighter pilot, is to chalk up enough kills to become an ace.But things do not turn out as expected. Mission after mission proves fruitless, and Connell finds his ability and his stomach for combat questioned by his fellow the brash wing commander, Imil; Captain Robey, an ace whose record is suspect; and finally, Lieutenant Pell, a cocky young pilot with an uncanny amount of skill and luck.Disappointment and fear gradually erode Connell's faith in himself, and his dream of making ace seems to slip out of reach. Then suddenly, one dramatic mission above the Yalu River reveals the depth of his courage and honor.Originally published in 1956, The Hunters was James Salter's first novel. Based on his own experiences as a fighter pilot in the Korean War, it is a classic of wartime fiction. Now revised by the author and back in print on the sixty-fifth anniversary of the Air Force, the story of Cleve Connell's war flies straight into the heart of men's rivalries and fears.

"As nearly perfect as any American fiction I know," is how Reynolds Price (The New York Times) described this classic that has been a favorite of readers, both here and in Europe, for almost forty years. Set in provincial France in the 1960s, it is the intensely carnal story—part shocking reality, part feverish dream —of a love affair between a footloose Yale dropout and a young French girl. There is the seen and the unseen—and pages that burn bright with a rare intensity.

This exquisite, resonant novel by PEN/Faulkner winner James Salter is a brilliant portrait of a marriage by a contemporary American master. It is the story of Nedra and Viri, whose favored life is centered around dinners, ingenious games with their children, enviable friends, and near-perfect days passed skating on a frozen river or sunning on the beach. But even as he lingers over the surface of their marriage, Salter lets us see the fine cracks that are spreading through it, flaws that will eventually mar the lovely picture beyond repair. Seductive, witty, and elegantly nuanced, Light Years is a classic novel of an entire generation that discovered the limits of its own happiness—and then felt compelled to destroy it.

An extraordinary literary event, a major new novel by the PEN/Faulkner winner and acclaimed master: a sweeping, seductive, deeply moving story set in the years after World War II.From his experiences as a naval officer in battles off Okinawa during World War II, Philip Bowman returns to America and finds a position as a book editor. It was a time when publishing was still a private affair - a scattered family of small houses here and in Europe - a time of gatherings in fabled apartments, parties into the night. It is a world in which to immerse himself, a world of intimate connections and surprising triumphs. But the deal that Philip cannot seem to close is love: one marriage goes bad; another fails to happen; and, finally, he meets a woman who enthralls, then betrays him, setting him on a course he could never have imagined for himself. Written with Salter's signature economy of prose, All That Is fiercely, fluidly explores a life unfolding in a world on the brink of change: a dazzling, sometimes devastating labyrinth of love and ambition, of the small shocks and grand pleasures of being alive.

Last Night is a spellbinding collection of stories about passion–by turns fiery and subdued, destructive and redemptive, alluring and devastating. These ten powerful stories portray men and women in their most intimate moments. A lover of poetry is asked by his wife to give up what may be his most treasured relationship. A book dealer is forced to face the truth about his life. And in the title story, a translator assists his wife’s suicide, even as he performs a last act of betrayal. James Salter’s assured style and emotional insight make him one of our most essential writers

This novel exposes the obsession that draws climbers away from civilization to test themselves against the most intimidating and inaccessible mountains in the world.James Salter captures the adventure of Gary, a roofer of churches, who feels restrained by conventions and flat ground. Unable to find happiness in his life, he travels to southern France to climb to the summits of the Alps. He finds peace and happiness within himself soon after. But when fellow climbers are trapped on the mountain, he makes a daring one-man rescue during a storm that brings him the notice he has always shunned. But the glory quickly dissapates and he returns to the anonymity he prefers, having thoroughly satisfied himself.

Virtuosic and exquisitely compressed, these stories show Salter at his best.The collection received the 1989 PEN/Faulkner Award.

In this brilliant book of recollection, one of America's finest writers re-creates people, places, and events spanning some fifty years, bringing to life an entire era through one man's sensibility. Scenes of love and desire, friendship, ambition, life in foreign cities and New York, are unforgettably rendered here in the unique style for which James Salter is widely admired.Burning the Days captures a singular life, beginning with a Manhattan boyhood and then, satisfying his father's wishes, graduation from West Point, followed by service in the Air Force as a pilot. In some of the most evocative pages ever written about flying, Salter describes the exhilaration and terror of combat as a fighter pilot in the Korean War, scenes that are balanced by haunting pages of love and a young man's passion for women.After resigning from the Air Force, Salter begins a second life, becoming a writer in the New York of the 1960s. Soon films beckon. There are vivid portraits of actors, directors, and producers--Polanski, Robert Redford, and others. Here also, more important, are writers who were influential, some by their character, like Irwin Shaw, others because of their taste and knowledge.Ultimately Burning the Days is an illumination of what it is to be a man, and what it means to become a writer.Only once in a long while--Vladimir Nabokov's Speak, Memory or Isak Dinesen's Out of Africa--does a memoir of such extraordinary clarity and power appear. Unconventional in form, Burning the Days is a stunning achievement by the writer The Washington Post Book World said "inhabits the same rarefied heights as Flannery O'Connor, Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams and John Cheever" --a rare and unforgettable book.

From the PEN/Faulkner Award-winning author James Salter and his wife, Kay, amateur chefs and perfect hosts, here is a charming, beautifully illustrated tour de table: a food lover's companion that, with an entry for each day of the year, takes us from a Twelfth Night cake in January to a champagne dinner on New Year's Eve. Life Is Meals is rich with culinary wisdom, history, recipes, literary pleasures, and the authors' own memories of successes and catastrophes.For instance: The menu on the Titanic on the fatal night? Reflections on dining from Queen Victoria, JFK, Winnie-the-Pooh, Garrison Keillor, and many others? The seductiveness of a velvety Brie or the perfect martini? How to decide whom to invite to a dinner party?and whom not to? John Irving's family recipe for meatballs; Balzac's love of coffee? The greatest dinner ever given at the White House? Where in Paris Samuel Beckett and Harold Pinter had French onion soup at 4:00 a.m.? How to cope with acts of God and man-made disasters in the kitchenSophisticated as well as practical, opinionated, and indispensable, Life Is Meals is a tribute to the glory of food and drink, and the joy of sharing them with others. "The meal is the emblem of civilization," the Salters observe. "What would one know of life as it should be lived, or nights as they should be spent, apart from meals?"

James Salter’s exalted place in American letters is based largely on the intense admiration of other writers, but his work resonates far beyond the realm of fellow craftsmen, addressing themes--youth, war, erotic love, marriage, life abroad, friendship--that speak to us all. Following the publication of his first novel, Salter left behind a military career of great promise to write full-time and--through decades of searching, exacting work--became one of American literature’s master stylists. Only months before he died, at the age of eighty-nine, he agreed to serve as the first Kapnick Writer-in-Residence at the University of Virginia, where he composed and delivered the three lectures presented in this book and introduced by his friend and fellow novelist, National Book Award-winning author John Casey. Salter speaks to us here with an easy intimacy, sharing his unceasing enchantment with the books that made up his reading life, including works by Balzac, Flaubert, Babel (whose prose is "like a handful of radium"), Dreiser, Céline, Faulkner. These talks provide an invaluable opportunity to see the way in which a great writer reads. They also offer a candid look at the writing life--the rejection letters, not one but two negative reviews in the New York Times for the same book, writing in the morning or at night and worrying about money during the long afternoons. Salter raises the question, Why does one write? For wealth? For admiration, or a sense of "importance"? Confronting a blank sheet that always offers too many choices, practicing a vocation that often demands one write instead of live, the answer for Salter was creating a style that captured experience, in a world where anything not written down fades away. Kapnick Foundation Distinguished Writer-in-Residence Lectures

James Salter returned to his second novel, The Arm of Flesh --not to revise it but to entirely rewrite it. The result is this great new work, Cassada . The lives of officers in an Air Force squadron in occupied Europe encompass the contradictions of military experience and the men's response to a young newcomer, bright and ambitious, whose fate is to be an emblem of their own. In Cassada , Salter captures the strange comradeship of loneliness, trust, and alienation among military men ready to sacrifice all in the name of duty and pride. After futile attempts at ordinary revision, Salter elected to begin with a blank page, to compose an entirely new novel based upon the characters and events of his second long unavailable novel, The Arm of Flesh . The result, Cassada , is a masterpiece, and the occasion of our hardcover edition was celebrated from coast to coast. "That opening image of the two lost planes lingers throughout, evoking the dark, perilous stuff that aviators and pilot-scribes, from Saint-Exupéry and Richard Hillary to Hanna Reitsch, work in." --Paul West, The Washington Post Book World "The air is thin in the heights through which Salter steers his characters, the prose moves at breakneck speed, and the book's emotional impact is devastating.... Cassada is a masterpiece, a book in which men wage an elemental battle for survival against invisible forces." --Mark Levine, Men's Journal

James Salter is one of the finest writers of our time. From his first published story in the Paris Review in 1968, Salter's work in the form has been universally acclaimed: five have appeared in O. Henry collections, Dusk and Other Stories won the 1989 PEN/Faulkner Award, and more recently he was the recipient of PEN USA's 2010 Lifetime Achievement Award, the 2010 REA Prize for the short story, and the 2012 PEN/Malamud Award. Each indelible narrative in the Collected Stories is marked by Salter's great literary grace, his ability to show the subtleties of a character or situation with precision, and his equally assured ability to command reversals of fortune or shocking revelations. The stories concern men and women in their most intimate moments, struggling with loss, desire, or the burden of memory. A fallen rider lies in a field, alone but for the knowledge that these may be her last twenty minutes. A man assisting in his wife's suicide is devastated by the aftermath. Two New York attorneys on a trip to Italy discover that their recent wealth affords them the possibility of a higher life, the reality of which is somewhat sordid. A young woman is unable to share a life-changing piece of news with her closest friends.

This is a collection of writing about one of James Salter's passions—travel. An exceptional companion with whom to share experiences, Salter hikes, skis, and climbs along the way, often with notable sportsman. Some of the pieces are brief and poignant, while others develop slowly and unfold with Salter's inimitable restrained elegance. All of them are infused with the skill of a novelist who just as astutely describes the sheer drop of a ski run as he does the façade of a château.

James Salter is recognized as one of America’s most important writers. The author of many memorable works of fiction—including Dusk and Other Stories, which won the PEN/Faulkner Award—he is also celebrated for his memoirs and many non-fiction essays. In her preface, Kay Salter writes,“Don’t Save Anything is a volume of the best of Jim’s non-fiction—articles published but never collected in one place until now. Though those many boxes were overflowing with papers, in the end it’s not really a matter of quantity. These pieces reveal some of the breadth and depth of Jim’s endless interest in the world and the people in it… One of the greatest pleasures in writing non-fiction is the writer’s feeling of exploration, of learning about things he doesn’t know, of finding out by reading and observing and asking questions, and then writing it down. That’s what you’ll find here.” This collection gathers his thoughts on writing and profiles of famous writers, observations of the changing American military life, evocations of Aspen winters, musings on mountain climbing and skiing, and tales of travels to Europe and Asia which first appeared in The New Yorker, Esquire, People Magazine, Conde Nast Traveler, the Aspen Times, and many other publications.

A singular life often circles around a singular moment, an occasion when one's life in the world is defined forever and the emotional vocabulary set. For the extraordinary writer James Salter, this moment was contained in the fighter planes over Korea where, during his young manhood, he flew more than one hundred missions.James Salter is considered one of America's greatest prose stylists. The Arm of Flesh (later revised and retitled Cassada ) and his first novel, The Hunters, are legendary in military circles for their descriptions of flying and aerial combat. A former Air Force pilot who flew F-86 fighters in Korea, Salter writes with matchless insight about the terror and exhilaration of the pilot's life.

“[A] well-edited collection . . . More than friends and less than lovers, Salter and Phelps were literary soul mates.” ― Publishers Weekly It was James Salter’s third novel, A Sport and a Pastime ―together with his film Three and a script he had written for Downhill Racer ―that in 1969 prompted Robert Phelps to write a letter of admiration. Though the two writers didn’t know each other, their correspondence went on to span decades. The letters themselves are exceptionally alive, uninhibited, gossipy, touching, and brilliant. The successes of Salter and the struggles of Phelps are fully explored by the writers themselves in the kind of honest exchange only letters can divulge. With an insightful foreword by Michael Dirda, this book gives voice to a nearly forgotten figure and his friendship with a man he admired.

"Hollis was in the back at a table piled with books and a space among them where he was writing when Carol came in.Hello, she said.Well, look who's here, he said coolly. Hello."

James Salter inédito.Descubre sus fascinantes reportajes literarios y crónicas de viajes«Uno de los pocos escritores estadounidenses de quienes quiero leerlo todo.»Susan SontagReconocido como uno de los grandes maestros de la ficción estadounidense por cimas literarias como Años luz o Juego y distracción, James Salter despuntó también como un virtuoso del reportaje y la crónica de viajes, géneros que cultivó a lo largo de su vida y cuyas piezas más significativas reunió él mismo en este volumen único, inédito hasta ahora. Observador curioso y abierto a todo tipo de encuentros, paisajes y azares, Salter logra fascinarnos con esta evocación sensual y apasionada de los sitios que visitó o donde residió en el curso de treinta años.Con un estilo nítido, confesional y elegíaco que recuerda algunas de las páginas más brillantes de su narrativa, Salter captura la esencia de personas, lugares y momentos para ofrecernos, ya sin las máscaras de la ficción, una particular imagen de sí mismo como una persona dispuesta a adentrarse con idéntico fervor en los cementerios de París, los castillos del Loira, las pistas de esquí de los Alpes, el Japón de Mishima, el corazón de Colorado, la paz de los Cotswolds o el caos de los estudios de Hollywood. Un explorador incansable que seguía las huellas de los escritores que más admiraba y que no dejaba nunca de reflexionar sobre algunos de los aspectos básicos de la cultura, que son también asuntos recurrentes de su la gloria yel heroísmo, la soledad, la grandeza del paisaje, la transitoriedad de las cosas, el amor, las mujeres, el sexo y el escándalo.La crítica ha «Con el toque literario del autor, estas piezas elegíacas muestran el enamoramiento que Salter mantuvo durante toda su vida con Europa y Japón.»Publishers Weekly«Los recuerdos de Salter se sienten como propios en estos bellos textos que parecen poemas en prosa.»Orlando Weekly«Un maestro.» Richard Ford«Uno de los pocos escritores estadounidenses de quienes quiero leerlo todo.» Susan Sontag«De una sutileza, inteligencia y belleza fuera de lo común.» Joyce Carol Oates«Un estilo excepcional, deslumbrante.» John Irving«Una prosa tensa como un arco y de un impacto asombroso.»The Sunday Times

«Si sta avvicinando un'ora malinconica, l'ora in cui tutto finisce.»«Un autore che abita nello stesso empireo di Flannery O'Connor, Paul Bowles, Tennessee Williams e John Cheever» – The Washington Post Book World«James Salter è capace di evocare con una singola frase l'intera storia di un individuo, il gioco complesso di desiderio e paura, di speranza e di bisogno, da cui scaturisce il presente» – The New York Times«La prosa di James Salter è unica e sorprendente» – John Irving«Un maestro del grande racconto americano» – The TimesUn pomeriggio al mare su una spiaggia di Barcellona, la vacanza in Italia di due giovani avvocati di belle speranze, una donna che attende la fine sul ciglio di una strada di campagna, meteore e vecchie glorie su un set cinematografico, uno scrittore e i suoi fantasmi... Undici racconti, quasi tutti al tempo stesso storie d'amore e squarci vividissimi e dolenti sulla vita, sulle persone che ci circondano con i loro insospettabili segreti, sugli abissi che si spalancano sotto la superficie levigata delle cose, tra veli di borotalco e forcine per capelli. Microcosmi evocati con sorprendente efficacia, grazie alla capacità di isolare con precisione chirurgica dettagli rivelatori, che prefigurano e sintetizzano destini, e di accostarli in un montaggio fulmineo e spiazzante. La sfida è fermare il tempo, sottrarre personaggi, atmosfere, luci e colori all'oblio, contrapporre al presagio della fine insito in ogni passione, legame, ambizione, qualcosa che duri. Un compito arduo eppure decisivo, quello che James Salter assegna alla scrittura, assolto in questi racconti con un talento cristallino, che incanta e commuove, e una fiducia incrollabile nel potere della parola.

"Barcelona at dawn. The hotels are dark. All the great avenues are pointing to the sea.The city is empty. Nico is asleep. She is bound by twisted sheets, by her long hair, by a naked arm which falls from beneath her pillow. She lies still, she does not even breathe."

Exclusive to Kindle, James Salter’s Charisma is about the power of certain men—a power beyond such qualities as emotional depth, sense of humor, sensitivity, the ability to commit, or any of the points on the usual check list—to attract and hold independent women. Leyla's preoccupations are not those of her lover, Paolo, and his needs are not hers, but they overwhelm her. This story is about that. James Salter is the author of the novels Light Years, A Sport and A Pastime, Solo Faces, The Arm of Flesh (revised as Cassada), and The Hunters, the memoirs Gods of Tin and Burning the Days, and the collection Last Night. He lives in Colorado and on Long Island.

Dieser Band versammelt die Kurzgeschichten eines der besten Autoren unserer Zeit. "Salter schreibt mit Kenntnis, Präzision und Witz ... Die frühen Geschichten aus den sechziger bis hin zu den achtziger Jahren haben einen jazzigen Rhythmus und den aalglatten, kühlen Glanz der Welt von Mad Men. ... Wir befinden uns in der zweiten Hälfte des Zwanzigsten Jahrhunderts und das World Trade Center befindet sich gerade erst in der Planung. Was kann schon schiefgehen? Und doch geht am Ende so ziemlich alles schief … Salter ist ein Zauberer und seine Wunderwerke sind fein gewirkt, und doch vermögen sie, die alltägliche Wirklichkeit des Lebens kraftvoll zu packen. Wieder und wieder gelingt ihm auf diesen Seiten, was John Updike als die Aufgabe des Schriftstellers definiert hat, nämlich dass er das ›Schöne am Gewöhnlichen‹ zu zeigen habe. Salter zeigt das Gewöhnliche als das, was es wirklich das Wunderbare." John Banville

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Traduit de l'anglais (États-Unis) par Philippe Garnier et Marc Amfreville." Tout ce qui n'est pas écrit, couché sur le papier, disparaît, à part certains moments, scènes et personnages impérissables. "Salter par Salter réunit les trois dernières allocutions données par James Salter à l'université de Virginie en 2014, ainsi que l'entretien " Tout ce qui n'est pas écrit disparaît ", paru dans la Paris Review en 1993. L'auteur d'Un bonheur parfait s'y confie et évoque les lectures qui l'ont inspiré, la genèse de ses romans, sa vie d'écrivain et ses rencontres, et tente d'analyser ce qui fait un " style ".Entre exercice d'admiration, souvenirs et pérégrination littéraire, Salter par Salter est l'autoportrait en creux d'une des dernières légendes de la littérature américaine contemporaine.

Le capitaine Cleve Connell, envoyé dans une base américaine pendant la guerre de Corée, a pour seul objectif de descendre cinq avions ennemis et de devenir ainsi un « as », le meilleur des aviateurs. Mais rien ne se passe comme prévu : une compétition sans merci règne entre les pilotes, et les coups du sort viennent troubler les combats. La crainte et la colère attisent les cœurs des soldats. Et pour ces héros modernes, sur la terre comme au ciel, la moindre faiblesse peut s'avérer fatale.Pour la gloire est le premier roman de James Salter, publié alors qu’il était encore pilote pour l’US Air Force. Jusqu'alors inédit en France, ce livre qui annonce les chefs-d’œuvre à venir est considéré comme un classique. Il a été adapté au cinéma avec Robert Mitchum.

El capitán Cleve Connel llega a Corea dispuesto a convertirse en un as, es decir, en miembro de esa elite de pilotos de caza que han abatido un mínimo de cinco aviones enemigos.A medida que sus compañeros acumulan misiones de éxito - a veces en circunstancias poco claras-, el halo de expectación que acompaña a Cleve empieza

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There is a kind of minor writer who is found in a room of the library signing his novel. His index finger is the color of tea, his smile filled with bad teeth. He knows literature, however. His sad bones are made of it. He knows what was written and where writers died. His opinions are cold but accurate. They are pure, at least there is that.