Dont Save Anything
Uncollected Essays, Articles, and Profiles

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 fictionincluding Dusk, and Other Stories, which won the PEN/Faulkner Awardhe is also celebrated for his memoirs and many nonfiction essays.In her preface, Kay Salter writes, Dont Save Anything is a volume of the best of Jims nonfictionarticles published but never collected in one place until now. Though those many boxes were overflowing with papers, in the end its not really a matter of quantity. These pieces reveal some of the breadth and depth of Jims endless interest in the world and the people in itOne of the greatest pleasures in writing nonfiction is the writers feeling of exploration, of learning about things he doesnt know, of finding out by reading and observing and asking questions, and then writing it down. Thats what youll 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.