The Hunters (novel)
First edition
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| Author | James Salter |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | War novel |
| Publisher | Harper & Brothers |
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Publication date
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1956 (1st edition) 1997 (revised re-issue) |
| Media type | Print (hardback & paperback) |
| Pages | 233 |
| ISBN | (1999 printing) |
| OCLC | 40521311 |
| 813/.54 21 | |
| LC Class | PS3569.A4622 H86 1999 |
| Followed by | The Arm of Flesh (1961) |
The Hunters is James Salter's debut novel and a tale of USAF fighter pilots during the Korean War, first published in 1956. The novel was the basis for the 1958 film adaptation of the novel starring Robert Mitchum and Robert Wagner with a different storyline.
Under his birthname James A. Horowitz, Salter himself was a fighter pilot with the rank of Captain who saw combat from February to August 1952. He kept a detailed diary of his tour and the novel closely follows a chronology of events he experienced as an F-86 Sabre pilot with the 4th Fighter-Interceptor Wing, based at Kimpo Air Base, Korea.
Salter was 31 when he published the novel and made his protagonist the same age. He describes 31 as being "the end for him" as a fighter pilot: "...not too old, certainly; but it would not be long. His eyes weren't good enough any more. With an athlete, the legs failed first. With a fighter pilot, it was the eyes." Salter resigned from the Air Force soon after the publication of The Hunters to pursue an alternate passion, writing.
On a frozen February evening in Fuchū, Japan, Captain Cleve Connell (Captain Cleve Saville in the original edition) restlessly waits for assignment orders completing his transfer to Korea. Billeted for four days in a warehouse, he has tired of seeing Tokyo – and of watching others come and go – and his clean laundry is nearly gone. He walks to dinner at the Officers Club reflecting on his ability as a flyer (he's a good one, with a reputation among his peacetime peers), his reluctance to leave the Air Force although pressured by civilian friends to do so, and his desire to test himself in combat. He senses that his feelings of time lost and lack of accomplishment are corrosive.
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