Tim Sandlin obit

Sandlin, prolific author, dies at 75

 He was not on the list.

Tim Sandlin has laid down his pen. The novelist, founder of Jackson Hole Writers Conference (and former dishwasher and elk skinner) died Sunday at age 75. An obituary is expected in an upcoming edition of the News&Guide. Friends and fans are invited to write notes on a yellow legal pad sitting temporarily at his customary back table at Pearl Street Bagels on Pearl Avenue, or mail condolences to his family at: 9903 170th Pl NE, Redmond, WA 98052.

Born in Oklahoma on August 11, 1950, Sandlin spent his early summers in Wyoming while his father worked seasonally for Grand Teton National Park. Sandlin worked over 40 entry-level jobs including driving an ice cream truck, skinning elk, cooking in a Chinese restaurant, trail inventory for the Forest Service, caretaker of rental cabins, gardener for the Rockefellers, pizza parlor manager, belt buckle buffer, and multiple dishwashing jobs. Throughout this period he lived most of the year on public lands, first in a tent and later in a Cheyenne tipi.

Sandlin published 10 novels and a book of columns. Three of his books, Skipped Parts, Sorrow Floats, and Sex and Sunsets, have been produced as movies. His other novels include Western Swing, Rowdy in Paris, Honey Don’t, Lydia, The Fable of Bing, Social Blunders, Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty, and The Pyms, Unauthorized Tales of Jackson Hole. He has also written 11 screenplays for hire. Sex and Sunsets served as the basis for the screenplay of the 2013 Canadian film The Right Kind of Wrong. Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty and Rowdy in Paris are in pre-production for films.

He lived in Jackson, Wyoming with his wife, Carol, daughter, Leila, and son, Kyle, for many years before moving to Redmond, Washington in 2024.

Sandlin died on March 29, 2026, at the age of 75.

 

Bibliography

Novels

Sex and Sunsets, 1987, current reprint by Sourcebooks Landmark

Western Swing, 1988, current reprint by Sourcebooks Landmark

Skipped Parts, 1992, current reprint by Sourcebooks Landmark

Sorrow Floats, 1992, current reprint by Sourcebooks Landmark

Social Blunders, 1997, current reprint by Sourcebooks Landmark

Lydia, 2011, current, Sourcebooks Landmark

Honey Don't, G.P. Putnam's Sons, 2003, ISBN 978-0-399-14998-6

Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty, current reprint by Oothoon Press 2014

The Fable of Bing, Oothoon Press, 2014, ISBN 9780989395755

The Pyms: Unauthorized Tales of Jackson Hole", Oothoon Press, 1991

Jimi Hendrix Turns Eighty. Riverhead Books. 2007. ISBN 978-1-59448-933-4. Tim Sandlin.

Rowdy in Paris. Riverhead Books. 2008. ISBN 978-1-59448-974-7. Tim Sandlin.

Lydia, Sourcebooks Landmark, 2011, ISBN 978-1-4022-4181-9

Essays

The Pyms: Unauthorized Tales of Jackson Hole, Jackson Hole Magazine, 1991

Somewhat True Tales of Jackson Hole, Bluechip Publishers, 2021