Chronology

1925	Born James Arnold Horowitz, June 10 in Passaic, New Jersey, to L. George and Mildred Horowitz. Raised as an only child in New York City.
1938–1942	Attends Horace Mann School in Riverdale, New York, where he is an editor of the school’s literary magazine. Has poems accepted by Poetry magazine.
1942	Reluctantly enters West Point. In his second year, he joins the Army Air Corps.
1945	Graduates from West Point and enters the Air Force as a pilot. On V-E Day, while on a navigation flight, he crashes into a house in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. No one is injured. Salter goes on to deployments in Manila and Hawaii.
1946–47	Writes a (never published) novel, which Harper & Brothers rejects.
1947	Promoted to first lieutenant.
1948–1950	Studies at Georgetown University, where he receives a master’s degree in international affairs.
1950	First travels to Europe.
1951	Volunteers as a fighter pilot in Korean War. Marries Ann Altemus.
1952	Participates in more than one hundred combat missions.
1952–1953	Assigned to fighter squadrons in the United States.
1954–1957	Stationed in Germany.
1955	Daughter Allan Conrad is born.
1956	First novel, The Hunters, published.
1957	Daughter Nina Tobe is born. With the rank of major, resigns from the Air Force.
1958	The Hunters film directed by Dick Powell, stars Robert Mitchum. Salter receives $60,000 for the film rights.
1959	Father dies. Salter sells swimming pools. Meets Lane Slate. First visits Aspen.
1961	The Arm of Flesh is published. During the Berlin crisis, recalled to active duty in Chaumont, France. Makes first notes for A Sport and a Pastime. Meets Irwin Shaw.
1962	Legally changes name to James Salter. His wife and children also take the new name. Twins, Claude Cray and James Owen, born. Team Team Team, written and directed with Lane Slate, wins a first prize at Venice Film Festival.
1963–1964	Makes NET-TV documentary series Circus with Lane Slate.
1965	Writes screenplay The Appointment.
1967	A Sport and a Pastime published by Paris Review Editions. Sells three thousand copies.
1967–1969	Lives near Grasse, France.
1968	“Am Strande von Tanger” published in the Paris Review and selected for The O. Henry Prize Stories 1970.
1969	The Appointment—directed by Sidney Lumet and starring Omar Sharif and Anouk Aimée—and Downhill Racer—starring Robert Redford and directed by Michael Ritchie—are released. First feature film as writer and director appears. Three, based on a story by Irwin Shaw, stars Charlotte Rampling and Sam Waterston. Buys a house in Aspen. Robert Phelps sends Salter a fan letter. The two maintain a correspondence until Phelps’s death in 1989.
1970	“The Cinema” published in the Paris Review.
1971	“The Destruction of the Goetheanum” published in the Paris Review and selected for The O. Henry Prize Stories 1972.
1972	“Via Negativa” published in the Paris Review and selected for The O. Henry Prize Stories 1974.
1975	Light Years published. Divorce from Ann Altemus.
1976	Begins living with writer Kay Eldredge.
1977	Takes up rock climbing after Robert Redford asks him to write screenplay about the subject.
1979	Solo Faces published. Makes first notes for novel that becomes All That Is.
1980	Daughter Allan dies in an accident. Moves to Long Island.
1981	“Akhnilo” published in Grand Street.
1982	Award from American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters.
1983	“Lost Sons” published in Grand Street and selected for The O. Henry Prize Stories 1984. Threshold, starring Donald Sutherland (screenplay by Salter, directed by Richard Pearce), is released in the United States.
1984	“The Fields at Dusk” (later renamed “Dusk”) published in Esquire. “Foreign Shores” included in Best American Short Stories 1984, edited by John Updike.
1985	Son Theo Shaw born in Paris
1986	Writer-in-residence at Vassar College. Writes an autobiographical essay, “The Captain’s Wife,” for Esquire, which prompts work on the memoir that becomes Burning the Days. Provides a foreword to the reissue of A. J. Liebling’s Between Meals: An Appetite for Paris.
1987	Teaches fall semester at Iowa Writers’ Workshop. “Akhnilo” anthologized in American Short Story Masterpieces, edited by Raymond Carver and Tom Jenks.
1988	“American Express” published in Esquire and selected for The O. Henry Prize Stories 1989. “Twenty Minutes” published in Grand Street. Dusk and Other Stories published.
1989	Teaches fall semester at Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Original deadline for Burning the Days passes. Wins PEN/Faulkner Award for Dusk and Other Stories.
1991	Teaches spring semester at the University of Houston.
1992	Still Such, limited edition of prose poem about New York, published.
1993	“Comet” published in Esquire. “You Must” chosen for Best American Essays 1993.
1994	“My Lord You” published in Esquire.
1995	A Sport and a Pastime reissued by The Modern Library.
1996	Film Boys, based on Salter’s story “Twenty Minutes,” is released (directed by Stacy Cochran).
1997	Teaches fall semester at Williams College. Burning the Days is published. Counterpoint publishes revised version of The Hunters.
1998	He and Kay Eldredge marry in Paris. Awarded the New York State Edith Wharton Citation of Merit, the John Steinbeck Award, the PEN Center USA Award for Creative Nonfiction, and the English-Speaking Union Ambassador Book Award for Burning the Days. William Dowie publishes first full-length book on Salter, James Salter (Twayne Publishers).
1998–2000	Named New York State Author.
2000	The Ransom Center (University of Texas at Austin) acquires James Salter Archive. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Rewritten version of The Arm of Flesh published as Cassada. Provides a foreword to the reissue of Irwin Shaw’s The Young Lions.
2002	“Last Night” is published in the New Yorker.
2003	Light Years wins the Mercantile Library-Clifton Fadiman Medal. “Bangkok” published in the Paris Review. “Give” published in Tin House. Bangkok (six stories) and L’Homme des Hautes Solitudes [Solo Faces] published in French translation by daughter Nina’s publishing company, Éditions des Deux Terres.
2004	Publication of Gods of Tin, selections from Salter’s writing about flying from The Hunters, Cassada, Burning the Days, and his previously unpublished Korean War journal. Short film released based on “Last Night,” starring Frances McDormand (directed by Sean Mewshaw). “Such Fun” published in Tin House. “Eyes of the Stars” published in Zoetrope. Soldiers Once and Still: Ernest Hemingway, James Salter, and Tim O’Brien by Alex Vernon (University of Iowa Press) is released.
2005	Last Night: Stories and There and Then: The Travel Writing of James Salter published.
2006	Life Is Meals published. PEN/Faulkner finalist for Last Night.
2007–2008	Penguin Modern Classics reissues The Hunters, Light Years, and Solo Faces.
2010	Memorable Days published. Receives the Rea Award for the Short Story and PEN USA’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
2011	Receives the Paris Review’s Hadada Award, which honors “a distinguished member of the writing community who has made a strong and unique contribution to literature.” Documentary James Salter: A Sport and a Pastime (directed by Sandy Gotham Meehan) is released.
2012	“As They Were: American Masters through the Lens of James Salter” (photos 1962–1963), the Armory Show, Pier 94 Manhattan. PEN/Malamud Award for “excellence in Short Fiction.” Atlantic Fiction for Kindle releases “Charisma,” which is also published in the Telegraph (UK), 2013.
2013	All That Is published. Awarded a Yale University inaugural Donald Windham–Sandy M. Campbell Literature Prize ($150,000) for “outstanding achievement in fiction.” Collected Stories is published in the United Kingdom.
2014	Becomes the inaugural Kapnick Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Virginia. Receives the F. Scott Fitzgerald Award for Achievement in American Literature.
2015	Agrees to write a memoir for Knopf. Dies on June 19 in Sag Harbor, New York, at age ninety.