Here at last is the private McMurtry writing about himself as a boy growing up in a largely “bookless” world, as a young man devouring the world of literature, as a fledgling writer and family man, and above all as one of America’s most prominent “bookmen.” He brings the reader along on his journeys to becoming an astute and adventurous collector who would eventually open book stores of rare and collectible books in Georgetown, Houston, and finally in his previously “bookless” hometown of Archer City, Texas. Spanning a lifetime of literary achievement, Larry McMurtry has succeeded at a wide variety of genres, from coming-of-age novels, such as The Last Picture Show to essays, like those in In a Narrow Grave to the reinvention of the “Western” on a grand scale like the Pulitzer Prize–winning Lonesome Dove. His son, James McMurtry, is a singer/songwriter and guitarist.Larry McMurtry’s fascinating and surprisingly intimate memoir of his lifelong passion of buying, selling, and collecting rare antiquarian books is “a necessary and marvelous gift” ( San Antonio Express-News). In 1988 he opened a second Booked Up in Archer City, establishing the town as an American 'Book City'. In 1964 he was awarded a Guggenheim grant.Ī book collector, he purchased a rare book store in Washington, D.C.'s Georgetown neighborhood in 1970 and named it Booked Up.

He published his first novels while an English instructor, and he won the 1962 Texas Institute of Letters Jesse M. He earned degrees from North Texas State University (B.A. He grew up on a ranch outside of Archer City, Texas. In 2006, he was co-winner of the Best Screenplay Golden Globe and Academy Award for Brokeback Mountain. His novels also included Horseman, Pass By, The Last Picture Show, and Terms Of Endearment, which were adapted into films. McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay. The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations. Much of his fiction is set in the 'old west' or contemporary Texas.īorn on June 3, 1936, in Wichita Falls, Texas, McMurtry is probably best known for his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove, which was adapted into a hit television miniseries that earned him seven Emmy Awards. Larry McMurtry is an American novelist, essayist, Bookseller, and screenwriter.

Books by larry mcmurtry