Larry McMurtry
A Life

I have to admit I was not too familiar with Larry McMurtry’s work. I was aware he had written “Last Picture Show” and “Lonesome Dove,” but I had never read these nor had seen the films. I have seen “Terms of Endearment” and “Brokeback Mountain,” but I did not get a sense of his style from these. His......more

My exposure to Larry McMurtry's works has not been sizeable, and while I enjoyed what I read, I enjoyed it as I do other works that are set in, and depend on a sufferance for which it becomes harder and harder to extend. (GWTW comes to mind.) One reads with flags going up, and guilt sets in. . .pers......more

How many times did I read Lonesome Dove? Watch the miniseries? And what drew me to the story? I grew up in the 1950s when cowboys ruled the airwaves. I wanted to sing like Gene Autry and ride Roy Roger’s Trigger. I squinted my eyes, as if looking into the sun, sporting a cowboy gunbelt at age four. I......more

On the day Larry McMurtry died, the River Oaks Theatre on West Gray Street in Houston closed its doors for the last time. The first sentence of Larry McMurtry: A Life felt almost too perfect, too apt, to be true, what with its The Last Picture Show overtones. The coincidence took on even more depth a......more

The man behind the epic book and one of the absolute best western epics, Lonesome Dove, was Larry McMurtry. Born in Texas, McMurtry’s heart lie within the west and the stories he penned that made the western life of old come alive for millions of readers. I knew nothing about the man until reading thi......more