James Salter’s Strange Career

After reading and admiring James Salter’s books, I wrote to him for the first time on July 18, 2005. I discussed the influence of Hemingway and Fitzgerald on his work, mentioned some places we’d both lived in (Colorado, Okinawa, Japan and Korea) and my meetings with his friends, especially Irwin Shaw and James Jones. I visited him in Bridgehampton, Long Island, for three days each time in June 2006 and July 2007, and over the years received eighty letters from him.