Larry McMurty obit

Larry McMurtry, Novelist of the American West, Dies at 84

In “Lonesome Dove,” “The Last Picture Show” and dozens more novels and screenplays, he offered unromantic depictions of a long mythologized region.

 

He was not on the list.

Larry McMurtry, the iconic and celebrated Texas author who redefined the Western with his novel "Lonesome Dove," died Thursday night of heart failure. He was 84.

Publicist Amanda Lundberg confirmed his death to the American-Statesman, part of the USA TODAY Network.

His wife Norma Faye, son James and grandson Curtis were at his side when he died, Lundberg confirmed, as was his longtime writing partner Diana Ossana, his goddaughter Sara Ossana and his three dogs. McMurtry, who died at his home in Tucson, Ariz., will be buried in Texas. He also is survived by sisters Sue and Judy McMurtry, brother Charlie McMurtry, former wife Jo Ballard and other family members and close friends.

The prolific author — with nearly 30 novels, about 15 works of nonfiction and more than 40 screenplays and teleplays to his credit — won a Pulitzer Prize in 1986 for "Lonesome Dove," a modern classic that revitalized the Western genre and inspired several sequels. He also won an Academy Award in 2006 for his adapted screenplay of the Western romantic tragedy "Brokeback Mountain," written with Diana Ossana. The screenplay was based on an Annie Proulx story.

Larry McMurtry almost single-handedly steered Texas literature out of the rut that it had been stuck in since the dime novels," said Lawrence Wright, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of "The Looming Tower" and the New York magazine staff writer. "He wrote about Texas in transition, a culture that was leaving the myth behind and confronting reality. And then he recreated the myth with the greatest cowboy story ever told, 'Lonesome Dove.' "

McMurtry was born June 3, 1936, to Hazel Ruth and William Jefferson McMurtry in Wichita Falls, a larger neighbor to the author's longtime hometown of Archer City. His paternal grandparents settled in the area in the late 1800s, and McMurtry's father was a rancher.

In Archer City, McMurtry's massive used bookstore, Booked Up, was a travel destination. The town inspired McMurtry's 1966 novel "The Last Picture Show." He also co-wrote the screenplay for the 1971 film adaptation with Peter Bogdanovich, who directed the movie that starred Timothy Bottoms, Jeff Bridges, Ellen Burstyn, Cloris Leachman and Cybill Shepherd.

"Lonesome Dove," the story of a cattle drive from the Rio Grande to Montana, was inspired by conversations about the Texas frontier that McMurtry overheard as a child. The hefty book famously was adapted into an Emmy-winning 1989 TV miniseries, the teleplay written by fellow Texan Witliff and the cast starring Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones and McMurtry's son James.

“When ‘Lonesome Dove’ became this iconic book — he called it the ''Gone with the Wind' of the West’' — he got aggravated,” said Diana Ossana. “He wrote it to undo the romantic myth of the West and cowboy."

McMurtry's other notable literary works, many of which also made their way to the screen, included "Horseman, Pass By," "Leaving Cheyenne" and "Terms of Endearment."

The Witliff Collections at Texas State University in San Marcos — named for Bill Witliff — holds the manuscripts to several of McMurtry's works and also houses the "Lonesome Dove" miniseries production archive.

In 2014, President Barack Obama presented McMurtry with a National Humanities Medal for work that “evokes the character and drama of the American West with stories that examine quintessentially American lives.”

“He cast a big shadow across the landscape,” Wright said. “There are very few other writers in Texas history that had the popular appeal that he did.”

"Mourning the death of Larry McMurtry, we can hope to find solace in his legacy," said Margaret Koch, director of the Bullock Texas State History Museum in Austin, "his expert weaving of iconic narratives that went far beyond romanticism, truly reflecting our relationships with the land and its people — those elements which humanize and describe the depth and spirit of all that is Texas."