Larry Mcmurtry Popular Books
Larry Mcmurtry Biography & Facts
Larry Jeff McMurtry (June 3, 1936 – March 25, 2021) was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins). He was also a prominent book collector and bookseller. His 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations (seven wins). The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. In 2014, McMurtry received the National Humanities Medal.In Tracy Daugherty's 2023 biography of McMurtry, the biographer quotes critic Dave Hickey as saying about McMurtry: "Larry is a writer, and it's kind of like being a critter. If you leave a cow alone, he'll eat grass. If you leave Larry alone, he'll write books. When he's in public, he may say hello and goodbye, but otherwise he is just resting, getting ready to go write." Early life and education According to the astrodatabank website, McMurtry's birth certificate states that he was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, the son of Hazel Ruth (née McIver) and William Jefferson McMurtry. He grew up on his parents' ranch outside Archer City. The city was the model for the town of Thalia which is a setting for much of his fiction. He earned a BA from the University of North Texas in 1958 and an MA from Rice University in 1960.In his memoir, McMurtry said that during his first five or six years in his grandfather's ranch house, there were no books, but his extended family would sit on the front porch every night and tell stories. In 1942, McMurtry's cousin Robert Hilburn stopped by the ranch house on his way to enlist for World War II, and left a box containing 19 boys' adventure books from the 1930s. The first book he read was Sergeant Silk: The Prairie Scout. Career Writer During the 1960–1961 academic year, McMurtry was a Wallace Stegner Fellow at the Stanford University Creative Writing Center, where he studied the craft of fiction under Frank O'Connor and Malcolm Cowley, alongside other aspiring writers, including Wendell Berry, Ken Kesey, Peter S. Beagle, and Gurney Norman. (Wallace Stegner was on sabbatical in Europe during McMurtry's fellowship year.) McMurtry and Kesey remained friends after McMurtry left California and returned to Texas to take a year-long composition instructorship at Texas Christian University. In 1963, he returned to Rice University, where he served as a lecturer in English until 1969, and a visiting professor at George Mason College (1970) and American University (1970–71). He entertained some of his early students with accounts of Hollywood and the filming of Hud, for which he was consulting. In 1964, Kesey and his Merry Pranksters conducted their noted cross-country trip, stopping at McMurtry's home in Houston. The adventure in the day-glo-painted school bus Furthur was chronicled by Tom Wolfe in his book The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test. That same year, McMurtry was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship.McMurtry won numerous awards from the Texas Institute of Letters: three times the Jesse H. Jones Award—in 1962, for Horseman, Pass By; in 1967, for The Last Picture Show, which he shared with Tom Pendleton's The Iron Orchard; and in 1986, for Lonesome Dove. He won the Amon G. Carter award for periodical prose in 1966 for Texas: Good Times Gone or Here Again? and the Lon Tinkle Award for Lifetime Achievement in 1984. In 1986, McMurtry received the annual Peggy V. Helmerich Distinguished Author Award from the Tulsa Library Trust. He reflected on his 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove, in Literary Life: A Second Memoir (2009), writing that it was the "Gone With the Wind of the West … a pretty good book; it's not a towering masterpiece."McMurtry described his method for writing novels in Books: A Memoir. He said that from his first novel on, he would get up early and dash off five pages of narrative. When he published the memoir in 2008, he said this was still his method, although by then, he wrote 10 pages a day. He also wrote every day, ignoring holidays and weekends. McMurtry was a regular contributor to The New York Review of Books.McMurtry was a vigorous defender of free speech and, while serving as president of PEN American Center (now PEN America) from 1989 to 1991, led the organization's efforts to support writer Salman Rushdie, whose novel The Satanic Verses (1988) caused a major controversy among some Muslims, with the Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, issuing a fatwā calling for Rushdie's assassination, after which attempts were made on his life.In 1989, McMurtry testified on behalf of PEN America before the U.S. Congress in opposition to immigration rules in the 1952 McCarran–Walter Act that for decades permitted the visa denial and deportation of foreign writers for ideological reasons. He recounted how before PEN America was to host the 1986 International PEN Congress, "there was a serious question as to whether such a meeting could in fact take place in this country... the McCarran–Walter Act could have effectively prevented such a gathering in the United States." He denounced the relevant rules as "an affront to all who cherish the constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression and association. To a writer whose living depends upon the uninhibited interchange of ideas and experiences, these provisions are especially appalling." Subsequently, some provisions that excluded certain classes of immigrants based on their political beliefs were revoked by the Immigration Act of 1990. Antiquarian bookstore businesses While at Stanford, McMurtry became a rare-book scout. During his years in Houston, he managed a book store called the Bookman. In 1969, he moved to the Washington, D.C., area. In 1970 with two partners, he started a bookshop in Georgetown, which he named Booked Up. In 1988, he opened another Booked Up in Archer City. It became one of the largest antiquarian bookstores in the United States, carrying between 400,000 and 450,000 titles. Citing economic pressures from Internet bookselling, McMurtry came close to shutting down the Archer City store in 2005, but chose to keep it open after great public support. In early 2012, McMurtry decided to downsize and sell off the greater portion of his inventory. He felt the collection was a liability for his heirs. The auction was conducted on August 10 and 11, 2012, and was overseen by Addison and Sarova Auctioneers of Macon, Georgia. This epic book auction sold books by the.... Discover the Larry Mcmurtry popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Larry Mcmurtry books.
Best Seller Larry Mcmurtry Books of 2024
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The Only Saloon in Town
Reavis Z. WorthamThe start of a crackling new western series by Spur Award–winning author Reavis Z. Wortham perfect for fans of William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone. A couple stiff drinks after ...
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To Hell and Gone
Charles G. WestA new actionpacked historical Western from an awardwinning author of more than forty Western bestsellers. THEY CALLED HIM CRAZY WOLF As a widower with three young boys...
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Lonesome Dove
Larry McMurtryThe Pulitzer Prize–winning American classic of the American West that follows two aging Texas Rangers embarking on one last adventure. An epic of the frontier, Lonesome Dove is th...
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A Different Sky
Meira ChandSingapore a trading post where different lives jostle and mix. It is 1927, and three young people are starting to question whether this inbetween island can ever truly be their ho...
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The Frontier Overland Company
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneJOHNSTONE COUNTRY. WHERE THE DREAMS ARE BIGGERAND THE ROAD IS DEADLIER.From the bestselling masters of Old West fiction comes a bold new saga of the American frontier. Set amid the...
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Presidio
Randy Kennedy“Fluent, mordant, authentic, propulsive…wonderfully lit from within” (Lee Child, The New York Times Book Review), this critically acclaimed, stunningly mature literary debut is the...
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Some Die Young
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneJohnstone Country. Where Freedom Stings.They call him The Man from Waco. Jailed for a crime he didn’t commit. Freed by the judge who locked him up but needs his protection. Hunted ...
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Cactus Jack
Brad SmithA delight from paddock to finish line." Booklist (STARRED REVIEW) Brad Smith “rivals Elmore Leonard at his best” (Publishers Weekly). His latest novel, for fans of Richard Russo ...
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Goodbye, Earl
Jo-Ann MapsonFive challenging years have passed in the lives of the ladies of Bad Girl Creek. Beryl, Nance, Ness, and Phoebe have experienced their share of hardship and heartache, but also muc...
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The First Day of Eternity
Charles G. WestRaised by Crow Indians. Enlisted by the US Army. Legendary scout Cody Hunter returns to the mountains where he lost his familyand makes a shocking discovery that will change his li...
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Armstrong
H. W. Crocker"Delightfully funny alternative history." WINSTON GROOM, bestselling author of Forrest Gump and El Paso "Droll satire, this is the West as it might have been if the Siou...
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The Chisholm Trail
Sam P. RidingsThis frontier classic is one of the best books written about the world’s greatest cattle trail, the Chisholm Trail, a trail that was approximately eight hundred miles long, running...
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Rider on the Buckskin
Peter DawsonCan Frank Rivers clear his name of his father’s murder?Frank Rivers had served four years in the penitentiary for the murder of his father in the commission of a stagecoach robbery...
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American Odyssey
Max McCoyMax McCoy, the Spur Awardwinning author of Damnation Road, continues his American Western saga of the Ghost Rifle as the violence and bloodshed the weapon caused return to haunt th...
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The Journey South
Reavis Z. WorthamIn a land with no law, there’s only two things a man can count ona deadly sense of justice and an even deadlier ability to outdraw the most dangerous leadspitting gunslingers. Texa...
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Fort Buzzard
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneJohnstone Country. Where Every Road Leads to Death. Preacher and Jamie McCallister head for the hills to uncover the truth behind a gruesome mountain massacreand find themselves tr...
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Hard Winter
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneFrom bestselling authors William W. and J.A. Johnstone comes the latest installment in a bold, new, generationsspanning saga of the American West set in historical Montana territor...
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Longhorns East
Johnny D BoggsFrom ninetime Spur Award–winning Western author Johnny D. Boggs comes the incredible story of the biggest, longest, wildest cattle drive in America’s historyfrom the heart of Texas...
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Crazy Horse
Larry McMurtryLegends cloud the life of Crazy Horse, a seminal figure in American history but an enigma even to his own people in his own day. This superb biography looks back across more than 1...
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Horseman, Pass By Larry McMurtry Study Guide
BookRags.comHorseman, Pass By Larry McMurtry Study Guide consists of approx. 34 pages of summaries and analysis on Horseman, Pass By Larry McMurtry.
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Understanding Larry McMurtry
Steven FryeAn inviting, detailed analysis of the work and characters created by this Pulitzer Prize–winning writerBest known for his Pulitzer Prize–winning novel Lonesome Dove and his Academy...
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Kill Me Tomorrow
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneYou’re never too old to fight for justice in the latest novel in the trailblazing series from legendary national bestselling Western authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone...
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The Evening Star
Larry McMurtryThe earthy humor and the powerful emotional impact that set McMurtry's Terms of Endearment apart from other novels now rise to brilliant new heights with The Evening Star.McMurtry ...
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The Whip Hand
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneJOHNSTONE COUNTRY. THE ULTIMATE KILLING GROUND.The latest actionpacked installment in bestselling Western authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone in the Hunter Buchanon Bla...
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While the Town Slept
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneThe latest blazing, breakneck adventure in the Tim Colter Western series by the bestselling legends of historical Westerns in which the assassination of President Grant is on the l...
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The Jensen Dynasty
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneReturn to the epic sagas of the Jensen mountain menSmoke and Lukeand their unique brand of bold, blazing justice together in one volume and in paperback for the first timefrom the ...
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Pastures of the Empty Page
George GetschowA collection of essays that offers an intimate view of Larry McMurtry, America’s preeminent western novelist, through the eyes of a pantheon of writers he helped shape through his ...
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The Angry Land
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneWhen a cattle train bound for Texas is ambushed by blood thirsty rustlers, legendary mountain man Smoke Jensen vows to get the cattle back, get the killers who stole themand get re...
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Beans, Bourbon, and Blood
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneJOHNSTONE COUNTRY. HOMESTYLE JUSTICE WITH A SIDE OF SLAUGHTER.In this explosive new series, Western legend Luke Jensen teams up with chuckwagon cook Dewey “Mac” McKenzie to dish ou...
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Larry McMurtry
Tracy DaughertyA biography of the late Pulitzer Prizewinning American novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry from New York Times bestselling author Tracy Daugherty.In over forty books, in a car...
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Folly and Glory
Larry McMurtryIn this brilliant sagathe final volume of The Berrybender Narratives and an epic in its own rightLarry McMurtry lives up to his reputation for delivering novels with “wit, grace, a...
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Montana
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneTwo families. Nine generations. One stretch of land under the Big Sky of Montana Territory. From national bestselling authors William W. Johnstone and J.A. Johnstone, a bold new sa...
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Little Bighorn
John HoughLittle Bighorn is the beautifully written, uniquely American story of the comingofage of eighteenyearold Allen Winslow during the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the fraught weeks...
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Dry Road to Nowhere
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneJOHNSTONE COUNTRY. TRAVEL AT YOUR OWN RISK. Some call it the most dangerous stagecoach in the West. But the harddriving owners of the Frontier Overland Company will get you where y...
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Ride a Fast Horse
Kevin WarrenHORSE SOLDIER. MAVERICK AVENGER.SADDLED FOR WAR AND BOUND FOR TROUBLE.The debut of an actionpacked new Western series set in Arizona by a debut author and lifelong cowboy Kevin War...
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Catfish Charlie
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneJOHNSTONE COUNTRY. BACK IN THE SADDLE. AGAIN.In this riproaring Western adventure, a oncefamous Texas Ranger who’s given up his badge and gone fishin’ gets back in the saddle to se...
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Bloody Newton
Johnny D BoggsA new standalone novel based on one of the greatest gunfights in American history from one of the most popular and respected writers of Western fiction, multiple award–winning auth...
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All the Water in the World
Karen RaneyA stunning debut novel about a teenage girl and her mother as they grapple with first love, family secrets, and tragedy.Maddy is sixteen. Smart, funny, and profound, she has loyal ...
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Carnage and Courage
Page WilsonCarnage and Courage is the story of an American woman’s journey from uppercrust ingénue to a career in the US diplomatic corps. At President Franklin Delano Roosevelt's behest, Pag...
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The Return of Kid Cooper
Brad SmithWESTERN WRITERS OF AMERICA 2019 SPUR AWARDS WINNER! "[A] firstrate novel."True West magazine "Smith has written tight, fastpaced novels his entire career…and reading one ...
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Shadow of a Dead Man
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneThe top dogs of bestselling western action thrillers hit the bullseye once again in the latest in a new series in which a disgraced lawman's quest for vengeance becomes a legendary...
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Seven Hours till Dawn
Carson McCloudA cowboy discovers gold in California and fights outlaws threatening his family in this western adventure from Carson McCloud. With nothing keeping Jim Heston tied to Texas, he tre...
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The Man from Waco
William W. Johnstone & J.A. JohnstoneMeet John Bannack. Jailed for a crime he didn’t commit. Busted out of a Texas State Prison. Running for freedom and gunning for justice. They call him . . .THE MAN FROM WACO....
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Loop Group
Larry McMurtryLoop Group is Larry McMurtry at his contemporary best, a novel that can best be described as Thelma and Louise meets Terms of Endearment, in which two aging ladies set out on a roa...
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Film Flam
Larry McMurtryA noted screenwriter himself, Pulitzer Prize–winner Larry McMurtry knows Hollywoodin Film Flam, he takes a funny, original, and penetrating look at the movie industry and gives us ...