Larry McMurtry, who chronicled Texas and the American West in novels like The Last Picture Show and Lonesome Dove, has died at 84, the New York Times reports.
McMurtry was born in Wichita Falls, Texas, and educated at the University of North Texas and Rice University. He made his literary debut in 1961 with the novel Horseman, Pass By; two years later, the book would be adapted for the film Hud. He wrote two sequels to the novel, Leaving Cheyenne and The Last Picture Show, the latter spawning another iconic film.
In 1985, he published Lonesome Dove, about former Texas Rangers on a cross-country cattle drive, which became a bestseller and garnered raves from critics. The novel was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a winner of the Pulitzer Prize, and it inspired a hugely popular, Emmy-winning miniseries.
McMurtry was also a bookseller who at various times owned stores in Houston; Archer City, Texas; and Washington, D.C.
McMurtry was remembered on social media by his admirers. “What a gut punch. McMurtry’s thinking [and] writing about Texas—esp. his book of essays, In a Narrow Grave—was formative for me,” wrote journalist Pamela Colloff.
And television showrunner Andy Greenwald tweeted, “Beers raised up, tears raining down for the realest of the real ones. Arguably the greatest American novelist of the 20th century. Inarguably the writer who singlehandedly got me through the pandemic. A legend and a titanic loss.”
Michael Schaub is a Texas-based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
