Larry McMurtry: A Life

Summary

This is the the definitive biography of Larry McMurtry, from Tracy Daugherty, author of the critically acclaimed Hiding Man, named a best book of the year by the New Yorker and New York Times, and the New York Times bestseller The Last Love Song.

In more than forty books, during a career that spanned more than sixty years, Larry McMurtry staked his claim as a superior chronicler of the American West and as the Great Plains’ keenest witness since Willa Cather and Wallace Stegner.

This biography traces his origins as one of the last American writers who had direct contact with this country’s pioneer traditions. It follows his astonishing career as a bestselling writer, a Pulitzer Prize‒winning novelist, and an Academy Award‒winning screenwriter. Many of McMurtry’s books and the movies made from them were groundbreaking and genre-busting.

His beloved Western epic Lonesome Dove has been recognized as an American classic, while the film version of his novel The Last Picture Show is regularly listed as among the finest American movies ever made. In addition to his writing career, McMurtry was a public intellectual and a passionate and beloved bookseller.

A sweeping and insightful look at a versatile, one-of-a-kind American writer, this first-ever biography is a must-read for all Larry McMurtry fans.