James Salter Dead at 90

James Salter, an author best known perhaps for his 1967 novel, “A Sport and a Pastime,” died on Friday in Sag Harbor during a physical therapy session after resuscitation efforts were unsuccessful. He was 90.

Mr. Salter began spending time on the South Fork in the late 1970s and lived for many years in Bridgehampton. He recounted his friendship with the writer Peter Matthiessen in The New Yorker last year after Matthiessen’s death, remembering swims at Gurney’s Inn  in Montauk, dinner parties in Sagaponack, and playing tennis.

Mr. Salter, who was born in Passaic, N.J., as James Horowitz, published his first novel, “The Hunters," in 1956 while still an Air Force pilot. He had graduated from West Point in 1945 and was a career officer until 1957, when he retired following the success of the novel. 

He went on to publish several other novels, collections of short stories and poetry, a memoir, and a collection of letters. He and his second wife, Kay Eldredge, wrote a 2006 book, "Life Is Meals: A Food Lover's Book of Days."

A good portion of his career included writing screenplays for films such as “Downhill Racer,” “The Appointment,” “Three,” and “Threshold.”

In 2011, he collaborated with the artist Juliao Sarmento on an exhibition at the Parrish Art Museum, which was then in Southampton, titled “Artists and Writers/House and Home.” 

Mr. Salter is survived by Ms. Eldredge, to whom he was married in 1998, and their son, Theo Salter. Three children from his first marriage, to Ann Altemus, Nina, Claude, and James Salter, and four grandchildren also survive. A daughter, Allan Salter, died before him.