Author larry mcmurtry biography of michael

When a cousin left to fight in World War II, he gifted McMurtry a box of adventure novels that set the young boy on his literary path. After graduating, McMurtry developed a fastidious writing schedule and eventually returned to Rice to complete his M. In one of his writing classes, McMurtry expanded a short story he wrote into a novel that would eventually land him as a William Stegner fellow at Stanford University's creating writing program.

Other fellowship recipients included Wendell Berry and Ken Kesey. McMurtry subsequently taught creative writing at different universities, all the while working on his novels. They need to find other readers soon—ideally they will be my son and grandson, but if not them, other book lovers. That sense of winding down, of a summing up, recurs throughout Books.

Periodically McMurtry comments on what he views as his own very modest literary achievement:. As I went on through life I wrote novel after novel, to the number of about thirty. Most were good, three or four were indifferent to bad, and three or four were really good. None, to my regret, were great, although my long Western Lonesome Dove was very popular—the miniseries made from it was even more popular.

Great songs outlast all but the greatest prose. Eventually, all authors larry mcmurtry biography of michael, if they persist too long, get worse. No reason to name names, since no one is spared. Writing great fiction involves some combination of energy and imagination that cannot be energized or realized forever. Strong talents can simply exhaust their gift, and they do.

The era of long cattle drives and Indian wars, of buffalo hunters and scouts, of quiet men with fast six-guns will soon be over. Just so, McMurtry recognizes that his beloved bookdealing may have entered its twilight, first because of rising rents and more recently because of the Internet:. The s…was part of the sad era that saw the closing of downtown urban bookshops in many American cities.

These were venerable bookshops all, and those who loved them miss them still. But with the rise of on-line bookselling, anyone could suddenly be a dealer, once-scarce titles suddenly seemed to be readily available, and fewer casual readers bothered to visit walk-in shops. The world was now one big virtual bookstore, where it was easy to just click and buy.

Why travel to Archer City? Soon even scouting began to change. Instead, you will now notice amateurs and hobbyists typing titles or scanning ISBN numbers into little hand-held computers. Within seconds, they know what any particular book is selling for on the Internet. Who needs connoisseurship, who needs the experience of handling and studying and remembering details about thousands of books?

Instead of the risk-taking world of scouting, so full of raffish glamor and romance, we now have data-entry. You can now read classic fiction on your cell phone. The electronic text industry keeps growing. Amazon even offers the Kindle, which emulates the look of an actual book page on its little screen. But bookmen—and bookwomen—love books, as McMurtry rightly insists.

Why settle for an ersatz simulacrum when you can have the real thing? They are built for speed and information retrieval, not for aesthetic bliss or the gradual acquisition of wisdom and understanding. Book collecting, as Cyril Connolly once observed, is a kind of prayer. I was in my mid-twenties. One of these consisted of some attractive private press titles, including, if I remember correctly, an item from the famous Kelmscott Press of William Morris.

At the bidding the next day nobody was interested in the books except me—and one slight man with dark hair and Buddy Holly glasses. Besides, my opponent seemed inexorably determined to win them, however much they cost. Best of The New York Review, plus books, events, and other items of interest. Walter de la Mare, a poet and writer of weird tales, once counted T.

Eliot and Graham Greene among his admirers, and now his ghost stories persist with an underground influence. March He was also a prominent book collector and bookseller. His 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.

In Tracy Daugherty 's 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.

The city was the model for the town of Thalia which is a setting for much of his fiction. 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.

Author larry mcmurtry biography of michael

InMcMurtry'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 s. Beagleand Gurney Norman. Wallace Stegner was on sabbatical in Europe during McMurtry's fellowship year. InKesey and his Merry Pranksters conducted their noted cross-country trip, stopping at McMurtry's home in Houston.

That same year, McMurtry was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship. He won the Amon G. 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 inhe said this was still his method, although by then, he wrote 10 pages a day.

He also wrote every day, ignoring holidays and weekends. Congress in opposition to immigration rules in the McCarran—Walter Act that for decades permitted the visa denial and deportation of foreign writers for ideological reasons. To a writer whose living depends upon the uninhibited interchange of ideas and experiences, these provisions are especially appalling.

While at Stanford, McMurtry became a rare-book scout. Inhe moved to the Washington, D. In with two partners, he started a bookshop in Georgetownwhich he named Booked Up. Inhe opened another Booked Up in Archer City. It became one of the largest antiquarian bookstores in the United States, carrying betweenandtitles. Citing economic pressures from Internet bookselling, McMurtry came close to shutting down the Archer City store inbut chose to keep it open after great public support.

In earlyMcMurtry decided to downsize and sell off the greater portion of his inventory. He felt the collection was a liability for his heirs. Dealers, collectors, and gawkers came out en masse from all over the country to witness this historic auction. As stated by McMurtry on the weekend of the sale, "I've never seen that many people lined up in Archer City, and I'm sure I never will again.

Annie Proulx. He accepted his Oscar while wearing a dinner jacket over jeans and cowboy boots. In his Golden Globe acceptance speech, he paid tribute to his Swiss-made Hermes typewriter. McMurtry married Jo Scott, an English professor who has authored five books. In McMurtry underwent heart surgery. He recovered at the home of his future writing partner Diana Ossana and wrote his novel Streets of Laredo at her kitchen counter.

He was 84 years old. It was announced in early that McMurtry's personal property including his writing desk, typewriters and personal book collection would be sold at public auction by Vogt Auction in San AntonioTexason May 29, The books follow the stories of occasionally recurring characters living in the Houston, Texas, area. Contents move to sidebar hide.

Article Talk. Read Edit View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. American novelist — Author photo on the book jacket of his novel The Last Picture Show Early life and education [ edit ]. Career [ edit ]. Writer [ edit ]. Antiquarian bookstore businesses [ edit ]. Film and television [ edit ].

Personal life [ edit ]. Fiction [ edit ]. Stand-alone novels [ edit ]. Thalia: A Texas Trilogy [ edit ]. Harmony and Pepper series [ edit ].