James Salter was a master. One of the greatest writers of American sentences in our literary history, his acute and glimmering portrayals of characters are built with a restrained and poetic style. 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 nonfiction essays.
In her preface, Kay Salter writes, “Don’t Save Anything is a volume of the best of Jim’s nonfiction—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 nonfiction 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.
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“These magazine pieces reflect the author’s wide range of experience and interests as well as his prose mastery…Taken together, these pieces attest to a true life, a life well-lived and well-written.”
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Kirkus Reviews