Larry McMurtry

Larry Jeff McMurtry June 3 1936 March 25 2021 was an American novelist essayist and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas During a career spanning six decades he wrote more than thirty novels numerous essays and memoirs and approximately fifty screenplays Films adapted from McMurtrys works earned 34 Oscar nominations with 13 wins and his novels were the basis for several acclaimed television miniseries McMurtrys early novels including Horseman Pass By 1961 The Last Picture Show 1966 and Terms of Endearment 1975 examined the decline of smalltown and rural Texas life all three were adapted into major films His 1985 book Lonesome Dove often considered his magnum opus won the Pulitzer Prize The novel which follows several retired Texas Rangers on a cattle drive from Texas to Montana was one of the most popular American novels of the late twentieth century and it was adapted into a television miniseries that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations and seven wins The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries and earned eight more Emmy nominations McMurtry and his longtime writing partner Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain 2005 which earned an Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay In addition to his literary career McMurtry was one of Americas most prominent antiquarian booksellers He operated bookstores in Washington DC and Archer City Texas where he amassed a stock of nearly half a million volumes In 2014 he received the National Humanities Medal Description above from the Wikipedia article Larry McMurtry licensed under CCBYSA full list of contributors on Wikipedia