WRITER

Larry McMurtry

1936 - 2021

Photo of Larry McMurtry

Icon of person Larry McMurtry

Larry Jeff McMurtry (June 3, 1936 – March 25, 2021) was an American novelist, essayist, and screenwriter whose work was predominantly set in either the Old West or contemporary Texas. His novels included Horseman, Pass By (1962), The Last Picture Show (1966), and Terms of Endearment (1975), which were adapted into films. Films adapted from McMurtry's works earned 34 Oscar nominations (13 wins). Read more on Wikipedia

Since 2007, the English Wikipedia page of Larry McMurtry has received more than 2,090,981 page views. His biography is available in 24 different languages on Wikipedia (up from 21 in 2019). Larry McMurtry is the 5,550th most popular writer (down from 4,718th in 2019), the 8,314th most popular biography from United States (down from 6,837th in 2019) and the 643rd most popular American Writer.

Memorability Metrics

  • 2.1M

    Page Views (PV)

  • 45.83

    Historical Popularity Index (HPI)

  • 24

    Languages Editions (L)

  • 1.62

    Effective Languages (L*)

  • 4.26

    Coefficient of Variation (CV)

Notable Works

The last picture show
Thalia (Tex. : Imaginary place), Teenage boys, Fiction
Terms of endearment
Fiction, Man-woman relationships, Mothers and daughters
Buffalo girls
Fiction, Calamity Jane, in fiction, Women pioneers
Evening Star
Fiction, Family, Domestic fiction
Lonesome Dove
Man-woman relationships, Western Fiction, historical fiction
A love story, an adventure, and an epic of the frontier, Larry McMurtry’s Pulitzer Prize— winning classic, Lonesome Dove, the third book in the Lonesome Dove tetralogy, is the grandest novel ever written about the last defiant wilderness of America. Journey to the dusty little Texas town of Lonesome Dove and meet an unforgettable assortment of heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers. Richly authentic, beautifully written, always dramatic, Lonesome Dove is a book to make us laugh, weep, dream, and remember. (back cover)
The desert rose
Fiction, Mothers and daughters, Stripteasers
Texasville
Fiction, City and town life, Thalia (Tex. : Imaginary place)
Jacy, the high school beauty, returns to Thalia from a career as a Hollywood star and changes the lives of her fellow townspeople.
Lonesome Dove
fiction, western cattle drives, cowboys
Lonesome Dove, by Larry McMurtry, the author of Terms of Endearment, is his long-awaited masterpiece, the major noel at last of the American West as it really was. A love story, an adventure, an American epic, Lonesome Dove embraces all the West--legend and fact, heroes and outlaws, whores and ladies, Indians and settlers--in a novel that recreates the Central American experience, the most enduring of our national myths. Set in the late nineteenth century. Lonesome Dove is the story of a cattle drive from Texas to Montana -- and much more. It is a drive that represents for everybody involved not only a Darin, even a foolhardy, adventure, but a part of the American Dream--the attempt to carve out of the last remaining wilderness a new life. Augustus McCrae and W. F. Call are former Texas Rangers, partners and friends who have shared hardship and danger together without ever quite understanding (or wanting to understand) each other's deepest emotions. Gus is the romantic, a reluctant rancher who has a way with women and the sense to leave well enough alone. Call is a driven, demanding man, a natural authority figure with no patience for weakness, and not many of his own. He is obsessed with the dream of creating his own empire, and with the need to conceal a secret sorrow of his own. The two men could hardly be more different, but both are tough, redoubtable fighters who have learned to count on each other, if nothing else. Call's dream not only drags Gus along in its wake, but draws in a vast cast of characters: -Lorena, the whore with the proverbial heart of gold, whom Gus (and almost everyone else) loves, and who. Survives one of the most terrifying experiences any woman could have... -Elmira, the restless, reluctant wife of a small-time Arkansas sheriff, who runs away from the security of marriage to become part of the great Western adventure... --Blue Duck, the sinister Indian renegade, one of the most frightening villains in American fiction, whose steely capacity for cruelty affects the lives of everyone in the book... -Newt, the young cowboy for whom the long and dangerous journey from Texas to Montana is in fact a search for his own identity... -Jake, the dashing, womanising ex-ranger, a comrade-in-arms of Gus and Call, whose weakness leads him to an unexpected fate... -July Johnson, husband of Elmira, whose love for her draws him out of his secure life into a kind of hero... Lonesome Dove seeps from the Rio Grande (where Gus and Call acquire the cattle for their long drive by raiding the Mexicans) to the Montana highlands (where they find themselves besieged by the last, defiant remnants of an older West). It is an epic of love, heroism, loyalty, honour, and betrayal--faultlessly written, unfailingly dramatic. Lonesome Dove is the novel about the West that American literature--and the American reader--has long been waiting for. --jacket ---------- Contains: - [Lonesome Dove: 2/2](https://openlibrary.org/works/OL134565W)
Terms of Endearment
Fiction, Man-woman relationships, Mothers and daughters
Evening Star
Fiction, Family, Domestic fiction
Een ruimdenkende bejaarde dame uit Texas ondervindt de problemen van het ouder worden. Vervolg op "Terms of endearment."
The desert rose
Fiction, Mothers and daughters, Stripteasers
The Last Picture Show
Thalia (Tex. : Imaginary place), Teenage boys, Fiction

Among WRITERS

Among writers, Larry McMurtry ranks 5,550 out of 7,302Before him are John Esposito, Tom Robbins, Ferdinand von Schirach, Grace Paley, Joe Sacco, and Melih Cevdet Anday. After him are Michiel de Swaen, Anita Desai, Kerstin Gier, Atis Kronvalds, Roger Ascham, and Alice Roosevelt Longworth.

Most Popular Writers in Wikipedia

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Contemporaries

Among people born in 1936, Larry McMurtry ranks 449Before him are Masaru Furukawa, Antonio Mercero, Giuliana Calandra, Delio Gamboa, Teatao Teannaki, and Clive Swift. After him are Rubén Héctor Sosa, Ben Pon, Žarko Nikolić, Krystyna Chojnowska-Liskiewicz, Barbara Sobotta, and David Hess. Among people deceased in 2021, Larry McMurtry ranks 476Before him are Jan Jindra, Viktor Putyatin, John Richardson, Martín Pando, Jiří Čadek, and Mark Eaton. After him are Evgeny Sveshnikov, Antoninho, Fredi, Raymond T. Odierno, Mary Wilson, and Romano Fogli.

Others Born in 1936

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Others Deceased in 2021

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In United States

Among people born in United States, Larry McMurtry ranks 8,314 out of 20,380Before him are Jesse Helms (1921), Brandon deWilde (1942), David Raksin (1912), Gail Ann Dorsey (1962), Tracy Austin (1962), and Timothy Bottoms (1951). After him are J. B. Lenoir (1929), Joseph Strickland (1958), Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884), Leelee Sobieski (1983), Leon Schlesinger (1884), and Mia Zapata (1965).

Among WRITERS In United States

Among writers born in United States, Larry McMurtry ranks 643Before him are Tim Powers (1952), Rick Warren (1954), Kenneth Burke (1897), John Esposito (1940), Tom Robbins (1932), and Grace Paley (1922). After him are Alice Roosevelt Longworth (1884), Barbara Ehrenreich (1941), Steven Millhauser (1943), Madeleine L'Engle (1918), Marilyn Ferguson (1938), and Whittaker Chambers (1901).