Larry McMurtry

Zachary Perdieu (University of Georgia)

Ed. by Christopher Hugh Gair, University of Glasgow
The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.4: American (US) Writing and Culture: Postwar and Contemporary, 1945-present.
Vol. editors: Sofia Ahlberg (Uppsala University), Patrick Chura (University of Akron), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Dale Enggass (University of Utah), Christopher Hugh Gair (University of Glasgow), Matthew Hofer (University of New Mexico), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Kerry Myler (Birmingham Newman University), Justin Parks (UiT - The Arctic University of Norway), Nick Selby (University of East Anglia)

Dates

Born 3 Jun 1936
Died 25 Mar 2021
Activity 1960-2020

Places

Born in United States
Active in United States

Activities

Primary

Cultural Theorist/ Critic
Essayist
Film/TV Script-writer/ Screenwriter
Novelist

Resources

McMurtry's Works

Save to Bookshelf

It might seem obvious, given his profession, to say that Larry McMurtry’s (b. 1936) life has been defined by books, but it is perhaps truer of him than of any other novelist. He has written a great number of them, including thirty-two novels and fourteen works of nonfiction, ranging from biographies on figures like Crazy Horse and George Custer, to essay collections on massacres in the American West. This production has been met with both critical and commercial success, resulting in a Pulitzer for his 1985 novel

Lonesome Dove

and an Oscar for his adapted screenplay of the film

Brokeback Mountain

(2005). His earliest novels,

Horseman, Pass By

(1961),

Leaving Cheyenne

(1963), and

The Last Picture Show

(1966) announced his presence on the literary scene while McMurtry was still in his…

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2625 words

Citation: Perdieu, Zachary. "Larry McMurtry". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 13 November 2020 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=3056, accessed 21 November 2024.]