James Salter is frequently praised as a “writer’s writer.” His craft is lively, pure and reads easily yet dramatically. His words are timeless and elegant; his sentences bright and taut. With 89 years of wisdom, Salter narrates his life experiences with rich perspective.
The University’s English Department and Creative Writing Program invited Salter to Grounds this semester as the Kapnick Distinguished Writer-in-Residence — and the author gave his inaugural lecture, “The Art of Fiction,” this Thursday.
Salter follows in the footsteps of William Faulkner, himself a University writer-in-residence from 1956-1958. Much like Faulkner, Salter will be recognized with international honor and literary prominence, in addition to giving a series of lectures throughout his tenure.
At Thursday's lecture, Salter was praised as “the gold standard of American fiction” by award-winning author and English Prof. John Casey.
In his talk, Salter detailed the style of fiction writing, drawing upon writers he admires and using personal anecdotes from his experience in the United States as well as abroad. He said books are “passwords” with the potential to create great power and influence. The voice of a writer exists long after his or her death, Salter said, because “you’re not seeing or hearing anything as you read … but you believe you are.”
Salter cited distinguished writers such as Honoré de Balzac, Isaac Babel, Gustave Flaubert and Ernest Hemingway in describing the importance of style in fiction writing — noting each author's careful selection of words and precise and powerful descriptions. He also admitted to being incredibly envious of Jack Kerouac, who went to his same high school.
Salter also offered a delineation of two types of writers: the naïve and the sentimental. Naïve writers, he said, are natural-born writers whose words are like springs, bursting with spontaneity, inundating the page without awareness of how they are writing. Writers of this nature include Shakespeare, Dante and Stern.
On the other hand, he said, sentimental writers face problems of style and technique. Sentimental writers include Tolstoy, Gogol, Thomas Mann, Virginia Wolfe, and “almost everyone else,” Salter said, to an echo of laughs from the audience.
Salter said he prefers the term “voice” rather than “style,” because an author's voice is unique and inseparable from their work. Furthermore, he said, there is a process in discovering a particular style and distinctive voice. A new writer is in a cycle of correction, susceptible to the influences of other writers. But the attachment gradually weakens, eventually liberating a writer's style others. This, Salter said, is the most gratifying aspect of fiction writing.
Salter’s second and third public lectures will take place Oct. 14 and 27 at 6 p.m in the Harrison Institute. Salter will conduct a reading of his work followed by a book signing Nov. 11.
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