Acclaimed author James Salter of Bridgehampton died on June 19 in Sag Harbor, while at a physical therapy session. He was 90.
In the years between publication of his first novel, “The Hunters,” in 1956, and “All That Is,” in 2013, which had been his first since 1979, and turned out to be his last, there were a number of novels, including “A Sport and a Pastime” and “Light Years,” as well as two collections of short stories and a memoir. Just prior to his death, Mr. Salter had agreed to write a memoir of his writing life for Knopf.
He was born James Horowitz on June 10, 1925, in Passaic, New Jersey, to L. George Horowitz and the former Mildred Scheff. He was raised in Manhattan and attended the private Horace Mann School in the Bronx. He went to West Point and joined the Army Air Corps.
According to The Times, he told The New Yorker magazine that he “took the pseudonym Salter—later his legal name—in publishing ‘The Hunters’ in part to shield him from being criticized by the military as he mined it for his fiction.” He also sought to conceal his Jewish heritage. “‘He didn’t want to be another Jewish writer from New York; there were enough of those,’ as the magazine put it.”
He married Ann Altemus in 1951; the marriage ended after 25 years. The couple had four children.
In the late 1960s and through the early 1980s, Mr. Salter spent time in Hollywood, writing screenplays and directing.
Later, he divided his time between homes in Bridgehampton and Aspen. In the 1970s he met Kay Eldredge, a playwright and documentary script writer. They married in 1998.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Salter is survived by three children from his first marriage, Nina, Claude and James Salter, and a son, Theo, with Ms. Eldredge; and four grandchildren.
His grown daughter Allan died in 1980. He recounts her death in “Burning the Days.”
on Jun 23, 2015