James Salter James Salter ( born June 10 , 1925 , New York City ) is an American novelist and short - story writer . Once a career officer and pilot in the United States Air Force , he abandoned the military profession in 1957 after successful publication of his first novel , " The Hunters " . After a brief career at film writing and film directing , Salter became a " writer ' s writer " in 1979 with publication of the novel " Solo Faces " . He has won numerous literary awards for his works , including belated recognition of works originally rejected at the time of their publication . His fellow author , friend and Pulitzer Prize - winner , Richard Ford , goes so far as to say , " It is an article of faith among readers of fiction that James Salter writes American sentences better than anybody writing today " in his Introduction to " Light Years " for Penguin Modern Classics . Biography . Salter was born James Arnold Horowitz , the son of a moderately wealthy New Jersey real estate consultant / economist , on June 10 , 1925 . He attended P . S . 6 , the Horace Mann School , and among his classmates were Julian Beck and William F . Buckley , Jr . , while Jack Kerouac attended during the 1939 - 40 academic year . He is alternately said to have favored Stanford University or MIT as his choice of college , but entered West Point on July 15 , 1942 , at the urging of his alumnus father , Col . Louis G . Horowitz , who had gone back into the Corps of Engineers in July 1941 in anticipation of the war . Like his father , Horowitz attended West Point during a world war , when class size was greatly increased and the curriculum drastically shortened ( his father graduated in November 1918 , after only 16 months in the academy , and with others of his Class of 1919 was called back after a month of duty to complete a post - graduate officer ' s course ) . Horowitz graduated in 1945 after just three years , ranked 49th in general merit in his class of 852 . He was known among classmates as " Horrible " Horowitz . He completed flight training during his first class year , with primary flight training at Pine Bluff , Arkansas , and advanced training at Stewart Field , New York . On a cross - country navigation flight in May 1945 , his flight became scattered , and low on fuel , he mistook a railroad trestle for a runway , crashlanding his T - 6 Texan training craft into a house in Great Barrington , Massachusetts . Possibly as a result , he was assigned to multi - engine training in B - 25s until February 1946 , and received his first unit assignment with the 6th Troop Carrier Squadron , stationed at Nielson Field , the Philippines ; Naha Air Base , Okinawa ; and Tachikawa Air Base , Japan . He was promoted to 1st lieutenant in January 1947 . Salter was transferred in September 1947 at Hickam AFB , Hawaii , then entered post - graduate studies at Georgetown University in August 1948 , receiving his Master ' s Degree in January 1950 . He was assigned to the headquarters of the Tactical Air Command at Langley AFB , Virginia , in March , where he remained until volunteering for assignment in the Korean War . He arrived in Korea in February 1952 after transition training in the F - 86 Sabre with the 75th Fighter - Interceptor Squadron at Presque Isle Air Force Base , Maine . Horowitz was assigned to the 335th Fighter - Interceptor Squadron , 4th Fighter - Interceptor Wing , a renowned MiG - hunting unit . He flew more than 100 combat missions between February 12 and August 6 , 1952 , and was credited with a MiG - 15 victory July 4 , 1952 . He used his Korean experience for his first novel , " The Hunters " ( 1956 ) , which was made into a film starring Robert Mitchum in 1958 . The movie version of " The Hunters " was honored with much acclaim for its powerful performances , moving plot , and realistic portrayal of the Korean War . Although an excellent adaptation for Hollywood , it was very different from the original novel , which dealt with the slow self - destruction of a 31 - year - old fighter pilot , who was once thought to be a " hot shot " but who found nothing but frustration in his first combat experience while others around him achieved glory , some of it perhaps invented . He served twelve years in the U . S . Air Force , the last six as a fighter pilot , before leaving the military to pursue a writing career , a decision he found difficult because of his passion for flying . His works based on his Air Force experiences have a fatalistic tone : his protagonists , after struggling with conflicts between their reputations and self - perceptions , are killed in the performance of duties while inept antagonists within their own ranks soldier on . Salter paints a vivid and familiar picture for any military pilot who has survived aerial combat . Salter was subsequently stationed in Germany and France , promoted to major , assigned to lead an aerial demonstration team , and became a squadron operations officer , in line to become a squadron commander . In his off - duty time he worked on his fiction , completing a manuscript that was eventually rejected by publishers , and another that became " The Hunters " . Despite the responsibilities of a spouse and two small children , he abruptly left active duty with the Air Force in 1957 to pursue his writing . His 1961 novel " The Arm of Flesh " drew on his experiences flying with the 36th Fighter - Day Wing at Bitburg Air Base , Germany , between 1954 and 1957 . An extensively revised version of the novel was reissued in 2000 as " Cassada " . However , Salter himself later disdained both of his " Air Force " novels as products of youth " not meriting much attention . " After several years in the Air Force Reserve , Salter severed his connection completely in 1961 by resigning his commission after his unit was called up to active duty for the Berlin Crisis . He moved back to New York with his family , which included twins born in 1962 , and legally changed his name to Salter . Writing career . Salter took up film writing , first as a writer of independent documentary films , winning a prize at the Venice Film Festival in collaboration with television writer Lane Slate ( " Team , Team , Team " ) . He also wrote for Hollywood , although disdainful of it . His last script , commissioned and then rejected by Robert Redford , became his novel , " Solo Faces " . Widely regarded as one of the most artistic writers of modern American fiction , Salter himself is critical of his own work , having said that only his 1967 novel " A Sport and a Pastime " comes close to living up to his standards . Set in post - war France , " A Sport and a Pastime " is a piece of erotica involving an American student and a young French girl , told as flashbacks in the present tense by an unnamed narrator who barely knows the student and who himself yearns for the girl , and who freely admits that most of his narration is fantasy . Many characters in Salter ' s short stories and novels reflect his passion for European culture and , in particular , France , which he describes as a " secular holy land . " Salter ' s prose shows the apparent influence of both Ernest Hemingway and Henry Miller , but in interviews with his biographer , William Dowie , he states that he was most influenced by André Gide and Thomas Wolfe . His writing is often described by reviewers as " succinct " or " compressed " , with short sentences and sentence fragments , and switching between 1st and 3rd persons , and in the present and past tenses . His dialogue is attributed only enough to keep clear who is speaking but otherwise allows the reader to draw inferences from tone and motivation . His memoir " Burning the Days " uses this prose style to chronicle the impact his experiences at West Point , in the Air Force , and as a celebrity pseudo - expatriate in Europe had on the way he viewed his life - style changes . Although it appears to celebrate numerous episodes of adultery , Salter is in fact reflecting on what has transpired and the impressions of himself it has left , just as does his poignant reminiscence on the death of his daughter . A line from " The Hunters " expresses these feelings : " They knew nothing of the past and its holiness . " Salter published a collection of short stories , " Dusk and Other Stories " in 1988 . The collection received the PEN / Faulkner Award , and one of its stories ( " Twenty Minutes " ) became the basis for the 1996 film " Boys " . He was elected to The American Academy of Arts and Letters in 2000 . In 2012 , PEN / Faulkner Foundation selected him for the 25th PEN / Malamud Award as his works show the readers " how to work with fire , flame , the laser , all the forces of life at the service of creating sentences that spark and make stories burn " . Salter and his first wife Ann divorced during his screen - writing period , after which he lived with journalist and playwright Kay Eldredge beginning in 1976 . They had a son , Theo Salter , born in 1985 , and married in Paris in 1998 . Salter ' s writings — including correspondence , manuscripts and heavily revised typescript drafts for all of his published works including short stories and screenplays — are archived at The Harry Ransom Center in Austin , Texas .