{"product_id":"the-art-of-fiction-9780813939056","title":"The Art of Fiction","description":"\u003cp\u003eJames Salter's exalted place in American letters is based largely on the intense admiration of other writers, but his work resonates far beyond the realm of fellow craftsmen, addressing themes--youth, war, erotic love, marriage, life abroad, friendship--that speak to us all.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFollowing the publication of his first novel, Salter left behind a military career of great promise to write full-time and--through decades of searching, exacting work--became one of American literature's master stylists. Only months before he died, at the age of eighty-nine, he agreed to serve as the first Kapnick Writer-in-Residence at the University of Virginia, where he composed and delivered the three lectures presented in this book and introduced by his friend and fellow novelist, National Book Award-winning author John Casey. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSalter speaks to us here with an easy intimacy, sharing his unceasing enchantment with the books that made up his reading life, including works by Balzac, Flaubert, Babel (whose prose is \"like a handful of radium\"), Dreiser, C line, Faulkner. These talks provide an invaluable opportunity to see the way in which a great writer reads. They also offer a candid look at the writing life--the rejection letters, not one but two negative reviews in the New York Times for the same book, writing in the morning or at night and worrying about money during the long afternoons.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSalter raises the question, Why does one write? For wealth? For admiration, or a sense of \"importance\"? Confronting a blank sheet that always offers too many choices, practicing a vocation that often demands one write instead of live, the answer for Salter was creating a style that captured experience, in a world where anything not written down fades away.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eKapnick Foundation Distinguished Writer-in-Residence Lectures\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cp\u003eJames Salter was the acclaimed author of the novels \u003ci\u003eA Sport and a Pastime, Light Years, and All That Is, \u003c\/i\u003e the memoir \u003ci\u003eBurning the Days, \u003c\/i\u003e and the PEN\/Faulkner Award-winning collection \u003ci\u003eDusk and Other Stories.\u003c\/i\u003e He was the first Kapnick Foundation Distinguished Writer-in-Residence at the University of Virginia, a position inspired by William Faulkner's residency at the university in 1956-58.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"University of Virginia Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50692903338258,"sku":"9780813939056","price":16.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_0a1ea160-af70-4bc9-a7b0-0c5655ff4992.jpg?v=1734137584","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/the-art-of-fiction-9780813939056","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}