Nonfiction

James Salter (1925–2015) was a master of the short story; an exquisite novelist and memoirist; an accomplished screenwriter, essayist, and journalist; the recipient of numerous awards, including a Donald Windham–Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prize; and a member of the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He was a fighter pilot in the Korean War, and his first novel, The Hunters, is based on this experience. His six other novels include A Sport and a Pastime, Light Years, and All That Is (Knopf, 2013). The author of the memoir Burning the Days, Salter received the PEN/Faulkner Award for his collection Dusk and Other Stories.

Photograph by Lana Rys.

As Evening Falls

An Essay

by James Salter

A few nights ago at dinner, they were talking about an ardent young feminist. She was good-looking, with long hair, and went around in tight jeans and high calf-leather boots. After a lecture she gave one evening, she announced that she would accept questions only from the women in the audience—men, oppressors of women throughout the centuries, would not be permitted to speak. It didn’t especially matter, since after two questions she abruptly decided that the lecture was over.

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