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Larry McMurtry (1936–2021)

Author of Lonesome Dove

104+ Works 36,965 Members 773 Reviews 131 Favorited

About the Author

Larry McMurtry, winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, among other awards, is the author of twenty-four novels, two collections of essays, two memoirs, more than thirty screenplays, & an anthology of modern Western fiction. He lives in Archer City, Texas. (Publisher Provided) Novelist Larry show more McMurtry was born June 3, 1936 in Wichita Falls, Texas. He received a B.A. from North Texas State University in 1958, an M.A. from Rice University in 1960, and attended Stanford University. He married Josephine Ballard in 1959, divorced in 1966, and had one son, folksinger James McMurtry. Until the age of 22, McMurtry worked on his father's cattle ranch. When he was 25, he published his first novel, "Horseman, Pass By" (1961), which was turned into the Academy Award-winning movie Hud in 1962. "The Last Picture Show" (1966) was made into a screenplay with Peter Bogdanovich, and the 1971 movie was nominated for eight Oscars, including one for best screenplay adaptation. "Terms of Endearment" (1975) received little attention until the movie version won five Oscars, including Best Picture, in 1983. McMurtry's novel "Lonesome Dove" (1985) won the Pulitzer Prize in 1986 and the Spur Award and was followed by two popular TV miniseries. The other titles in the Lonesome Dove Series are "Streets of Laredo" (1993), "Dead Man's Walk" (1995), and "Comanche Moon" (1997). The other books in his Last Picture Show Trilogy are "Texasville" (1987) and "Duane's Depressed" (1999). McMurtry suffered a heart attack in 1991 and had quadruple-bypass surgery. Following that, he suffered from severe depression and it was during this time he wrote "Streets of Laredo," a dark sequel to "Lonesome Dove." His companion Diana Ossana, helping to pull him out of his depression, collaborated with him on "Pretty Boy Floyd" (1994) and "Zeke and Ned" (1997). He co-won the Best Screenplay Golden Globe and the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for Brokeback Mountain in 2006. He made The New York Times Best Seller List with his title's Custer and The Last Kind Words Saloon. McMurtry is considered one of the country's leading antiquarian book dealers. (Bowker Author Biography) show less

Series

Works by Larry McMurtry

Lonesome Dove (1985) 8,308 copies
Streets of Laredo (1993) 2,192 copies
The Last Picture Show (1966) 1,856 copies
Dead Man's Walk (1995) 1,852 copies
Comanche Moon (1997) 1,802 copies
Books: A Memoir (2008) 1,099 copies
Terms of Endearment (1975) 1,028 copies
Sin Killer (2002) 1,028 copies
Texasville (1988) 884 copies
Anything for Billy (1988) 857 copies
Buffalo Girls (1990) 798 copies
Boone's Lick (2000) 673 copies
The Wandering Hill (2003) 663 copies
The Evening Star (1992) 662 copies
Telegraph Days (2006) 657 copies
Duane's Depressed (1999) 639 copies
Horseman, Pass By (1961) 607 copies
By Sorrow's River (2003) 595 copies
Some Can Whistle (1989) 578 copies
Crazy Horse (1999) 576 copies
Zeke and Ned (1997) 524 copies
Folly and Glory (2004) 517 copies
Brokeback Mountain [2005 film] (2005) — Screenwriter — 514 copies
Leaving Cheyenne (1963) 505 copies
The Last Kind Words Saloon (2014) 443 copies
Cadillac Jack (1982) 415 copies
Moving On (1970) 406 copies
Pretty Boy Floyd (1994) 403 copies
Loop Group (2004) — Author — 304 copies
The Desert Rose (1983) 302 copies
Rhino Ranch (2009) 288 copies
When the Light Goes (2007) 285 copies
Late Child (1995) 267 copies
Somebody's Darling (1978) 215 copies
Custer (2012) 185 copies
Paradise (2001) 135 copies
The Last Picture Show [1971 film] (1971) — Screenwriter — 117 copies
Terms of Endearment [1983 film] (1983) — Author — 114 copies
Lonesome Dove #3 107 copies
Hollywood: A Third Memoir (2010) 97 copies
The Berrybender Narratives (2010) 96 copies
Thalia: A Texas Trilogy (2017) 87 copies
Hud [1963 film] (1963) — Author — 63 copies
The Lonesome Dove Series (1960) 50 copies
Lonesome Dove Part 1 Of 3 (2002) 39 copies
Lonesome Dove : Episode 1 (1985) 30 copies
Lonesome Dove : Episode 2 (1985) 28 copies
Johnson County War [2002 TV movie] (2002) — Writer — 14 copies
Texasville [1990 film] (1990) — Author — 6 copies
Brokeback Mountain: A Screenplay — Author — 3 copies
Thalia 1 copy
Moving On Part 1 Of 2 (1992) 1 copy
Missouri River (2006) 1 copy
Pour Billy (1990) 1 copy
Comanche Moon Part 2 of 2 (1999) — Author — 1 copy

Associated Works

Ceremony (1977) — Introduction, some editions — 3,534 copies
Unholy Ghost: Writers on Depression (2001) — Contributor — 490 copies
Doña Barbara (1929) — Foreword, some editions — 472 copies
Lonesome Dove [1989 TV mini-series] (1989) — Screenwriter — 206 copies
The Facts of Life: and Other Dirty Jokes (2002) — Foreword — 124 copies
Avedon at Work: In the American West (2001) — Foreword — 68 copies
Texfake: An Account of the Theft and Forgery of Early Texas Printed Documents (1991) — Introduction, some editions — 33 copies
Streets of Laredo [1995 TV mini series] (2001) — Original book — 20 copies
Dead Man's Walk [1996 TV mini-series] (1996) — Screenplay — 19 copies
South by Southwest: 24 Stories from Modern Texas (1986) — Contributor — 10 copies
Lovin' Molly [1974 film] — Original book — 2 copies

Tagged

19th century (129) 20th century (123) adventure (150) American (210) American fiction (113) American literature (367) American West (616) biography (326) books (160) books about books (178) cowboys (219) DVD (162) essays (195) fiction (4,767) first edition (220) historical (138) historical fiction (789) history (228) Larry McMurtry (190) literature (486) Lonesome Dove (118) McMurtry (195) memoir (386) Native American (254) Native Americans (146) non-fiction (445) novel (667) own (172) paperback (114) Pulitzer Prize (149) read (391) series (144) Texas (819) to-read (1,540) unread (173) USA (158) West (121) western (2,420) Western Fiction (205) Westerns (167)

Common Knowledge

Members

Discussions

Larry McMurtry in Legacy Libraries (February 2023)
MARCH GROUP READ - Lonesome Dove in Club Read 2019 (May 2019)
Larry McMurtry American Author Challenge in 75 Books Challenge for 2015 (September 2015)

Reviews

I first read this book 20 years ago, and recently re-read it. I didn't think too much of it on the first read, but have improved my rating this time. McMurtry has written a different kind of travel book. Instead of exploring a region and engaging with the communities he travels through, he zips along mostly interstate highways while reflecting on the role the roads have played in his life, and on the authors and books about the region. His travels were limited to a few days a trip, and motivated by his desire to rediscover the person he was before his heart surgery several years earlier. He felt compelled to drive, until reaching a location where he didn't any more.… (more)
½
 
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jspurdy | 10 other reviews | Feb 28, 2024 |
I like fat Mr. McMurtry writes his book from facts, not conjecture. The history is very rudimentary but he does stick to the facts and it’s an easy read.
 
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alanac50 | 12 other reviews | Feb 27, 2024 |
 
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ben_r47 | 4 other reviews | Feb 22, 2024 |
A lot of concern decrying the loss of memory after books took over for the oral traditions and took away the storytelling memories. The Greeks and Walter Benjamin, an early 20th century critic both resent this development. From my perspective, the chapter on book scouting makes the book all worthwhile and wading through the other laments, such has there never really being a cowboy for any length of time and that the cattle business was never profitable, largely because ranchers tried to make the European cow work, when it should have been the Mexican cows from the start, at lleast tolerable. McMurtry sums up book scouting in two words, 'the quest'. Composing a great bookstore is a lot like writing a novel. Parts of that I can see, as in patiently curating the right stock, but the anology quickly falls apart in my mind. Although it is easy to conceive the theory that successful scouting rests on an accumulation of knowledge, just as in a novel. It seems that it is still essential to have the Amazon app handy because the values of books I remember from 20, or even 5 years ago, can be easily outdated, usually downward. After all Larry feels that most booksellers are only semi-literate or more precisely specifically literate to the areas where they have chosen to continue to read. To this author reading is knowledge and book dealers have to choose to either read or peddle the books and, of course, they must peddle the books. I can testify to the fact that my reading has increased in both breadth and depth since my retirement some 15 years ago.… (more)
 
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SamMelfi | Feb 19, 2024 |

Lists

1970s (1)
1960s (1)

Awards

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Associated Authors

Irving Ravetch Screenwriter
Annie Potts Narrator
Annie Proulx Contributor, Author
Tom Carey Actor

Statistics

Works
104
Also by
14
Members
36,965
Popularity
#494
Rating
3.9
Reviews
773
ISBNs
921
Languages
15
Favorited
131

Charts & Graphs