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Author

Larry McMurtry

1936–2021

11 fiction

Larry McMurtry is central to modern fiction about the American West, especially for readers interested in myth, frontier hardship and the end of older ways of life.

Larry McMurtry was born in Archer City, Texas, in 1936 and grew up in a ranching family. He studied at the University of North Texas and Rice University, then joined the influential writing programme at Stanford. Alongside teaching and screenwriting, he became a prominent bookseller and collector, eventually building a large used-book business in his home town. His knowledge of both ranch life and literary tradition informed a career devoted to questioning romantic myths of the American West.

McMurtry’s first novel, Horseman, Pass By, and later works such as The Last Picture Show examined the decline of rural communities in modern Texas. His best-known historical novel, Lonesome Dove, won the Pulitzer Prize and follows a cattle drive while exposing the violence, loneliness and emotional cost hidden beneath frontier legend. Related novels expanded the story across several decades. McMurtry also wrote Terms of Endearment, biographies and historical studies, and shared an Academy Award with Diana Ossana for adapting Brokeback Mountain. He died in 2021. His fiction remains central to any reading of western expansion because it combines affection for the landscape with a persistent refusal to idealise conquest and masculinity.

Periods and events

American Civil War1861–1865 CE Cattle Drives and Cowboy Era1866–1890 CE Indian Wars of the American West1850–1890 CE Railroad Expansion in the American West1865–1900 CE Republic of Texas1836–1846 CE Texas Rangers on the Frontier1835–1901 CE Texas–Comanche Conflict1821–1875 CE

Historical fiction

Historical fiction series by Larry McMurtry (2 series)

Lonesome Dove in Order

by Larry McMurtry 4 books 4.7(49,123)

The Lonesome Dove quartet follows Augustus McCrae and Woodrow Call from their first service as young Texas Rangers to old age at the closing of the nineteenth-century frontier. Dead Man’s Walk and Comanche Moon trace their early experiences during the Republic of Texas, the Santa Fe expedition and…

Thalia, Texas and Duane Moore in Order

by Larry McMurtry 7 books 4.3(9,692)

The Thalia novels follow several generations of characters in a fictional north Texas town as ranching, oil wealth and small-town institutions decline or change. Horseman, Pass By, Leaving Cheyenne and The Last Picture Show establish a community shaped by frustrated ambition, damaged families and limited opportunities. The Last…

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