Narrative Outloud

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.

Palm Court

by James Salter
“Palm Court” (00:58 preview)

Among the contemporary masters of the short story, none surpasses James Salter. We have followed his work for decades and have heard him reading many times but never more wonderfully than at a nightclub in the Bowery in November 2005 at our first Narrative Night, where he performed “Palm Court” from his collection Last Night. Salter’s readings are rich with his ability to embody the characters he dramatizes, in this case two lovers whose story spans early and late midlife. The recording here is a transcendent occasion of storytelling art. Salter also spoke extemporaneously about the nature of art and of a life lived for art.

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