Biographer Tracy Daugherty has brought to new attention Pulitzer Prize-winning American novelist and screenwriter Larry McMurtry (1936-2021), focusing on his roots and how he brought them to flower for a vast audience.

McMurtry was born to a family of Scottish background who initially occupied a small cabin on a ranch in Texas near Wichita Falls. From an early age, the boy understood that theirs was “a dying way of life” --- a notion that later would infuse his creative endeavors. This sense of loss was especially apparent when, in the evenings, the family gathered on the porch and told tales of how things used to be in the Old West.

"Daugherty’s diligently constructed biography will provide memories for those who lived in McMurtry’s era and recall well his novels, along with the movies and series that sprang from them."

From that youthful inculcation, and an education in creative writing at Stanford University, McMurtry would rise to stand among the best-known story creators of his time. His mind was always focused on what the western migration meant to America, who were its true heroes, and what were its undeniable failures. Standout works included LONESOME DOVE, HORSEMAN, PASS BY --- which is set in bygone times and reveals his sometimes bitter perspective on early Texan and Southwestern settlers --- and the iconic, more modernly situated THE LAST PICTURE SHOW.

Daugherty has done an admirable job of showing this complex visionary in his public and private life. McMurtry spoke so openly and frankly that someone once noted that his conversation carried such weight that it was “a little scary for Hollywood.” His friends included many of the recognized greats of his time, while his books --- some destined for the big screen and the best actors --- continued to center on the loneliness and problematic scenarios that typified the Texas of his childhood.

In his wide-reaching portrait of McMurtry, Daugherty had access to family memories and archives, and includes a plethora of detail. In addition to writing compulsively, McMurtry collected books and ran a bookstore, Booked Up, for much of his adult life. In college, he hung out with Ken Kesey and his wild hippie cohort. There were several females in his life, and on his deathbed, he spoke their names. He met the stars who peopled his novels on film but remained largely unswayed by the movie-making glitter. However, he met Elizabeth Taylor in his older age and declared that she had “the best eyes in Hollywood.”

Daugherty’s diligently constructed biography will provide memories for those who lived in McMurtry’s era and recall well his novels, along with the movies and series that sprang from them. It also undoubtedly will prove fascinating to aspiring young writers and anyone determined to understand the subtleties of American history.