Good-bye Larry McMurtry

No doubt those coyotes you heard howling toward the end of March were lamenting the death of Larry McMurtry. I came close to howling with them on March 26 when I learned the Texas writer had passed the day before. I have watched the mini-series “Lonesome Dove” too many times to count, and being a lover of the Western genre, I watch every episode with profound respect for McMurtry’s realistic, heart-rending grasp of the “old West” and the people who tamed it.

Over his lifetime, his love of the wild West coupled with painstaking research resulted in close to three dozen novels, over 20 screenplays, and numerous nonfiction memoirs and essays. I was especially delighted when he adapted a short story written by Annie Proulx, another of my favorite authors, into the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain. Annie’s story won the National Magazine Award for Fiction in 1998, and the film adaptation was a “best picture” finalist at the 78^th Annual Academy Awards. What a dynamite combination!

Several of McMurtry’s engaging novels, and not always Westerns, were adopted by filmmakers. Besides his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel Lonesome Dove which became an Emmy-winning TV series, films based on The Last Picture Show and Terms of Endearment were box office triumphs. Last Picture Show was a finalist for the “best picture” Oscar in 1971.

I will dearly miss the prolific writer as I do the passing of all of my favorite authors. Lately, March seems to be particularly hard on them. Larry McMurtry died March 25, 2021; Pat Conroy March 4, 2016. Annie, please be extra careful during March.  

Annie Proulx's Song

"You fill up my senses," wrote John Denver in "Annie's Song." It was a song meant for another Annie, yet his words could be my words when it comes to how I feel about Annie Proulx's stories. I haven't read everything she's written, notably her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Shipping News; however her short stories blow me away.

I began reading her work in earnest after I found out she'd written the short story, "Brokeback Mountain," and that was after I'd seen the movie. I've been reading everything I can get my hands on about westering while doing research for my novel-in-progress, a story inspired by my great-grandmother who moved to Colorado when the West was still wild.

Topping my list of writers of the West is Annie Proulx followed by Louis L'amour (he's not as hokey as you might think), and Wallace Stegner. Annie Proulx has the courage to write about life in the West as it was and is. No sugar-coating from this author. Louis L'amour was guilty of including a lot of stereotypes, but he was a great story teller. Wallace Stegner, another Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote about relationships and how living in the West changed people. My favorite piece, out of everything I've read by these authors, is Annie Proulx's short story, "Them Old Cowboy Songs." It staggers me every time I read it.

I don't have Annie Proulx's courage, but I've learned from her to avoid stereotypes--no Indians attacking isolated settlers, no gunfights in my novel. Instead I'm writing about a young woman who leaves a privileged upbringing in Philadelphia for a hard but satisfying life in the Rockies. When finished, my novel won't be as gut-level real as if Annie Proulx had written it; however it may move some of my readers to kiss their modern appliances.