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Journalist David Streitfeld talks about writing about the life and stories of his friend Larry McMurtry.
David talks about the history of how the friendship developed, about Larry’s passion for stories, books and his bookstore in Texas, and what he understood about Larry’s writing style and process.
McMurtry’s fame and influence after Hud, Lonesome Dove and Brokeback Mountain (the books and the films) helped him bring more attention to Archer City, TX, and the books he wanted to collect and share with other readers interested in following their own storyteller’s journeys, housed in his Booked Up bookstore.
Western Star: The Life and Legends of Larry McMurtry
Before Larry McMurtry became one of the most celebrated writers of the twentieth century, he worked on his family’s ranch in rural Texas. At night he heard vivid stories of his cowboy uncles driving herds of cattle across the plains where there once were bison and Native Americans. “McMurtry Means Beef,” as one ranching magazine put it. By the time he died in 2021, McMurtry had published forty books, won a Pulitzer for Lonesome Dove and an Oscar for his cowritten adaptation of Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain, and seen his work made into such classic films as Hud and Terms of Endearment. Now, McMurtry means great stories.
Western Star reveals the real and complicated life of a storyteller who was both an icon and critic of Texas, the favorite of presidents, confidant to movie stars like Diane Keaton and Cybill Shepherd, friend to Ken Kesey and husband to his widow Faye, an obsessive bookseller, and the most enduring voice of the American West.
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