Acclaimed author James Salter, known for 'A Sport and a Pastime,' 'Light Years,' dead at 90

An author acclaimed for his sophisticated prose and sobering insights in "Light Years," ''A Sport and a Pastime" and other fiction has died. James Salter was 90.

Salter's death was confirmed Friday to The Associated Press by Alfred A. Knopf spokesman Paul Bogaards. He did not immediately provide other details.

Salter didn't enjoy great commercial success but was admired by critics and by such peers as John Irving, Richard Ford and Peter Matthiessen, his friend and longtime neighbor on Long Island. Salter won the PEN/Faulkner prize for the 1988 collection "Dusk and Other Stories" and received two lifetime achievement honors for short story writing, the Rea Award and the PEN/Malamud prize.