Gods of tin : the flying years

A singular life often circles around a singular moment, an occasion when one’s life in the world is defined forever and the emotional vocabulary set. For the extraordinary writer James Salter, this moment was contained in the fighter planes over Korea where, during his young manhood, he flew more than one hundred missions. As The New York Times noted, "It isn’t often that a writer of superlative skills knows enough about flying to write well about it; Saint-Exupery was one; Salter is another." The editors have gathered selections from a journal Salter kept during the Korean War, published here for the first time, and assembled selections from two novels, The Hunters and Cassada, and from the author’s celebrated memoir, Burning the Days. As the editors comment in a brief introduction, "It is, as a record of the day-to-day, mission-to-mission life of a young fighter pilot, a remarkable document by any standard. But it provides as well a view into the ‘crucible of a writer’s beginnings, like pencil studies that precede a painting, in which the essential qualities of the artist’s hand are unmistakable.’ " A singular life often circles around a singular moment, an occasion when one's life in the world is defined forever and the emotional vocabulary set. For the extraordinary writer James Salter, this moment was contained in the fighter planes over Korea where, during his young manhood, he flew more than one hundred missions. James Salter is considered one of America's greatest prose stylists. The Arm of Flesh (later revised and retitled Cassada) and his first novel, The Hunters, are legendary in military circles for their descriptions of flying and aerial combat. A former Air Force pilot who flew F-86 fighters in Korea, Salter writes with matchless insight about the terror and exhilaration of the pilot's life. "A singular life often circles around a singular moment, an occasion when one's life in the world is defined forever and the emotional vocabulary is set. For James Salter, that moment was found in the skies over Korea." "A riveting combination of fiction, journals, and memoir, Gods of Tin is Salter's own story. Gathering selections from The Hunters, Cassada, and Burning the Days, it also includes, published here for the first time, selections from a journal Salter kept during the war."--BOOK JACKET. A selection of fiction, journals, and memoirs that tells the story of the author's more than one hundred missions flying a F-86 fighter during the Korean War By the summer of 1942, America had been at war with Japan and Germany for more than half a year. James Salter ; Edited And Selected By Jessica Benton And William Benton.