Bust of Larry McMurtry by Renowned sculptor Clete Shields. | Photo courtesy of The Wittliff Collections
Larry McMurtry: Lonesome Dove and Brokeback Mountain legendary author died on March 25 at age 84.
“McMurtry was a giant of Texas literature,” said Steve Davis, curator of the Southwestern Writers Collection in The Wittliff Collections at Texas State University. “He was a steadfast friend and supporter of The Wittliff Collections.”
Larry McMurtryOver the years McMurtry donated many treasures to the Wittliff Collections.
Among these are his original 1972 film scenario, “Streets of Laredo,” which he later rewrote and expanded into his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, “Lonesome Dove.”
Larry McMurtry is a Texan novelist, essayist, bookseller, and screenwriter.
His novels include Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films earning a total of 26 Oscar nominations, winning ten.
McMurtry and co-writer Diana Ossana adapted the screenplay for Brokeback Mountain (2005), which earned eight Academy Award nominations with three wins, including McMurtry and Ossana for Best Adapted Screenplay.
Lonesome Dove, his 1985 Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, was adapted into a television miniseries by Bill Wittliff that earned 18 Emmy Award nominations, winning seven. The subsequent three novels in his Lonesome Dove series were adapted as three more miniseries, earning eight more Emmy nominations.
According to Texas Monthly, McMurtry “has done more to shape the country’s understanding of Texas than anyone before or since.” The Wittliff Collections has the manuscripts to several of McMurtry’s works and is the home to the Lonesome Dove miniseries production archive.
In 2020, sculptor Clete Shields created a bronze bust of Larry McMurtry that overlooks the entrance to The Wittliff’s new Lonesome Dove exhibition gallery.
The Wittliff is also honored to be the home for the archive of James McMurtry, a leading American singer-songwriter who is the son of Larry McMurtry.
“We are so sorry to learn of the passing of our dear friend,” Davis said. “Our condolences to his son James and the McMurtry family.”
For more information about the McMurtry archive at The Wittliff Collections, visit www.thewittliffcollections.txstate.edu.
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Larry found homosexuals are somehow relevant to the American "Brokeback" West.
Forsooth. We are now lost for want of novel vision.