‘Lonesome Dove,’ ‘Terms of Endearment’ writer Larry McMurtry dies
DALLAS — Larry McMurtry, the prolific and popular author who took readers back to the old American West in his Pulitzer Prize-winning “Lonesome Dove” and returned them to modern-day landscapes in works such as his emotional tale of a mother-daughter relationship in “Terms of Endearment,” has died. He was 84.
Mr. McMurtry died Thursday night of heart failure, according to a family statement issued through a publicist on Friday.
Mr. McMurtry, who had in his later years split his time between his small Texas hometown of Archer City and Tucson, Arizona, wrote almost 50 books, including novels, biographies and essay collections. He simultaneously worked as a bookseller and screenwriter.
In 2006, Mr. McMurtry won an Oscar for best adapted screenplay with Diana Ossana for Ang Lee’s feature film “Brokeback Mountain.” It was his first win and second nomination for an Academy Award, having been previously co-nominated for best adapted screenplay with Peter Bogdanovich for “The Last Picture Show.” In his acceptance speech, Mr. McMurtry — noting that “Brokeback Mountain” was a book before a movie — thanked “all the booksellers in the world ... from the humblest paperback exchange to the masters of the great book shops of the world, all of our contributors to the survival of the culture of the book, a wonderful culture, which we mustn’t lose.”
The film adaptation of “Terms of Endearment,” released in 1983, was written and directed by James L. Brooks and received Oscars for best picture, director and screenplay, with awards for star Shirley MacLaine and supporting actor Jack Nicholson.
“Sitting here thinking of the greatness of Larry McMurtry,” Brooks tweeted Friday. “Among the best writers ever. I remember when he sent me on my way to adapt “Terms” — his refusal to let me hold him in awe. And the fact that he was personally working the cash register of his rare bookstore as he did so.”
Mr. McMurtry was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1986 for “Lonesome Dove,” which was later adapted for the 1989 television miniseries starring Robert Duvall, Tommy Lee Jones, Danny Glover and Diane
Lane. The four-part television event, one of the most-watched miniseries in history, went on to win seven Emmy Awards.
“’Lonesome Dove’ was an effort to kind of demythologize the myth of the Old West,” Mr. McMurtry told The Associated Press in 2014. But he added, “They’re going to twist it into something romantic no matter what you do.”
“The Last Picture Show,” his third novel, became a classic with its coming-of-age story set in a small Texas town. He and director Peter Bogdanovich were nominated for an Academy Award for their script for the movie, filmed in Archer City, located about 140 miles northwest of Dallas.
Mr. McMurtry, who was born into a family of ranchers, wrote his first novel, “Horseman, Pass by,” at the age of 25 in 1961. It was made into the movie “Hud” starring Paul Newman that came out two years later.
Mr. McMurtry opened his first used and rare bookstore in 1971 in Washington, D.C., and later opened others in Houston, Dallas and Tucson. In the mid-1980s, he opened his Booked Up store in Archer City.
He had about 28,000 books in his nearby home in Archer City. “I’m very attached to the books. I need them. I need to be among them,” he told The AP in 2014.
He married Josephine Ballard in 1959 and three years later, the couple had a son, singersongwriter James McMurtry. In 1966, they divorced. In 2011, he got married for a second time: to Faye Kesey, the widow of longtime friend Ken Kesey, author of “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.” They held their marriage ceremony in the Archer City bookstore.