Preface
by Kay Eldredge Salter xi
Why I Write 1
Some for Glory, Some for Praise 3
On Other Writers 9
The Writing Teacher 11
Odessa, Mon Amour 15
Like a Retired Confidential Agent, Graham Greene Hides Quietly in Paris 25
An Old Magician Named Nabokov Lives and Writes in Splendid Exile 31
From Lady Antonia's Golden Brow Springs Another Figure of History 37
Ben Sonnenberg Jr. 41
Life for Author Han Suyin Has Been a Sometimes Hard But Always Many Splendored Thing 43
D'Annunzio, the Immortal Who Died 49
West Point and Beyond 67
Cool Heads 69
An Army Mule Named Sid Berry Takes Command at the Point 72
Ike the Unlikely 78
Men and Women 91
Younger Women, Older Men 93
Karyl and Me 105
When Evening Falls 109
Talk of the Town on Bill Clinton 115
On the Edge 117
The Definitive Downhill: Toni Sailer 119
At the Foot of Olympus: Jarvik, Kolff, and DeVries 125
Man Is His Own Star: Royal Robbins 138
The Rock and the Hard Place 153
Racing for the Cup 155
Getting High 164
The Alps 181
Offering Oneself to the Fat Boys 183
The Life 187
Passionate Falsehoods 189
The First Women Graduate 208
France 223
Almost Pure Joy 225
Eat, Memory 232
Paris Nights 236
Chez Nous 240
Aspen 247
Once and Future Queen 249
They Call It Paradise 254
Snowy Nights in Aspen 267
Notes from Another Aspen 271
Writing and What's Ahead 275
Once Upon a Time, Literature. Now What? 277
Words' Worth 282
Acknowledgments 289
Index 293