“A dazzling masterclass in the art of biography. The enigmatic McMurtry granted Streitfeld numerous interviews before his death. These sessions combined with primary documents Streitfeld unearthed in scattered archival collections provides Western Star with an astonishingly fresh perspective on one of America’s most beloved writers. An awesome reappraisal of McMurtry in all of his genius, contradictions, foibles and enduring charms.”—Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University and New York Times bestselling author of Cronkite
“Larry McMurtry is one of the major American writers of the past fifty years, and David Streitfeld captures his spirit. Western Star demystifies the man who reshaped our vision of the West. In this engaging biography, Streitfeld brings both a journalist's ear for a good story and nose for detecting a lie, making an important contribution to American letters.”—Rebecca Romney, author of Jane Austen's Bookshelf
"David Streitfeld's portrait of Larry McMurtry lets us slide into a booth at the Dairy Queen alongside one of the most alluring and most mysterious of our old masters, bringing us as close as we are ever likely to get to a man whose range and depth of achievement has few parallels in American letters."—Benjamin Moser, author of the Pulitzer-winning Sontag: Her Life and Work
“An entertaining and distinctive biography of novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry. . . . Drawing on voicemails and personal conversations with McMurtry, Streitfeld brings the writer’s unfiltered voice and unique anecdotes into the narrative. . . . The result is a memorable portrait of a Texas icon.” —Publishers Weekly
“Western Star is being billed as the “definitive” biography of Larry McMurtry—the legendary author of Lonesome Dove who died in 2021—and it looks like it might actually be able to back up that bold claim. Streitfeld, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, was a close friend of McMurtry’s, and the old Texan gave him ‘the keys to his past’ before he died. McMurtry had many personas—rancher, novelist, Hollywood screenwriter, rare book collector, free speech defender—and Streitfeld’s doorstopper biography looks to probe them all." —Lit Hub