Larry McMurtry

An icon of American letters, Larry McMurtry counts a Pulitzer Prize and a screenwriting Academy Award among his numerous accomplishments. Here, Danny Deck-Emma's friend from Terms of Endearment-is a promising young writer losing touch with his talent and drifting from Texas to California because "that's where all the writers are." Set in the early 1960s, this is an uproarious (and raunchy) satire of life in Texas and California and a true American...

Horseman, Pass By tells the story of Homer Bannon, an old-time cattleman who epitomizes the frontier values of honesty and decency, and Hud, his unscrupulous stepson. Caught in the middle is the narrator, Homer's young grandson Lonnie, who is as much drawn to his grandfather's strength of character as he is to Hud's hedonism and materialism. When first published in 1961, Horseman, Pass By caused a sensation in Texas literary circles for its stark,...

A widow with a small army of suitors, Aurora Greenway loves the limelight. She's got three grandchildren whom she adores (in small doses) and her son-in-law Flap, whom she's not really crazy about. And there's her daughter Emma. In some ways, Emma is all there ever was. Now, there's little time left to say the things that need to be said.

An almost-true story about a small town in Texas that ought to exist if it doesn't, with characters like Sam the Lion, the delectable Jacy, and Ruth Popper, the coach's wife.

In a prolific life of singular literary achievement, Larry McMurtry has succeeded in a variety of genres: in coming-of-age novels like The Last Picture Show; in collections of essays like In a Narrow Grave; and in the reinvention of the Western on a grand scale in his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, Lonesome Dove. Now, in Books: A Memoir, McMurtry writes about his endless passion for books: as a boy growing up in a largely "bookless" world; as a young...