I knew a woman who had a bookshop in Chicago and actually called her author events "literary salons."  I am not sure what the hell an "honest-to-god literary salon" is, though.  Like, what would qualify as a "sham" literary salon, I am wondering.  I'm really curious to know what you imagine it to be.  

I guess I just consider it to be people sitting/standing around reading or reciting literature, usually with some air of self-indulgent intellectual pretense and mild subversiveness.  Alcohol or coffee and cigarettes complete the picture.  So, I've been to countless of those.  Considering all of my adult life has been spent in academia, bookstores or libraries, it's rather unavoidable.  Though I did actually seek them out abroad.  Although, I guess in fairness, you can't just call any gathering in Russia where people drink and smoke and recite literature and talk about art and philosophy and politics and argue about who is the greatest poet a "literary salon."  I think the official term for that is "the national pastime."  :)

I can even go so far as to say that my home has been the setting of these things many times throughout my life.  But maybe they were not honest-to-god literary salons.  Maybe they were fake.  I can't say.  

"Pretending that you already know the answer when you don't is not actually very helpful." ~Migeru.