Larry McMurtry

Biography

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. During a career spanning six decades, he wrote more than thirty novels, numerous essays and memoirs, and approximately fifty screenplays. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations with 13 wins, and his novels were the basis for several acclaimed television miniseries. McMurtry's early novels, including Horseman, Pass By (1961), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), examined the decline of small-town and rural Texas life; all three were adapted into major films. His 1985 book Lonesome Dove, often considered his magnum opus, won the Pulitzer Prize. The novel, which follows several retired Texas Rangers on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana, was one of the most popular American novels of the late twentieth century, and it was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations and seven wins. The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries and earned eight more Emmy nominations. McMurtry and his longtime writing partner Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay. In addition to his literary career, McMurtry was one of America's most prominent antiquarian booksellers. He operated bookstores in Washington, D.C., and Archer City, Texas, where he amassed a stock of nearly half a million volumes. In 2014, he received the National Humanities Medal.

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