Larry McMurtry:

Screenplays, 1979-1988 and undated, at the Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library

Biographical Sketch

Larry McMurtry, novelist, essayist, and screenwriter, was born in 1936 in Wichita Falls, Texas. He spent his early years on his father’s ranch outside of Archer City. He graduated from the University of North Texas in 1958 and from a graduate program at Rice University in 1960. That same year he was a Stegner Fellow at Stanford University. His first novel Horseman, Pass By won the Jesse H. Jones Award from the Texas Institute of Letters in 1962. Hud, a movie based on this novel, received numerous Academy Awards and nominations in 1964. His 1966 novel The Last Picture Show, about teenagers coming of age in a dying Texas town in the 1950s, was released as a movie in 1971. Lonesome Dove, perhaps his most well-known novel, was originally begun as a screenplay. It won the Pulitzer Prize for fiction in 1986. His collaboration with Diana Ossana for Annie Proulx’s Brokeback Mountain won the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay, (2006). He has been a rare book collector and bookstore owner, with stores in Washington, D.C. and Archer City, Texas.

A list of his publications includes:

• McMurtry, Larry. Horseman, Pass By. New York: Harpers, 1961.
• McMurtry, Larry. The Last Picture Show. New York: Dial, 1966.
• McMurtry, Larry. Cadillac Jack.New York: Simon and Schuster, 1982.
• McMurtry, Larry. Lonesome Dove.New York: Simon and Schuster, 1985.
• McMurtry, Larry. Texasville.New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.
• McMurtry, Larry. Flim Flam: essays on Hollywood New York: Simon and Schuster, 1987.
• McMurtry, Larry. Some Can Whistle. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989.
• McMurtry, Larry. Comanche Moon. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1997.
• McMurtry, Larry. Crazy Horse. New York: Viking, 1999.
• McMurtry, Larry. Boone’s Lick. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2000.

Scope and Contents

The collection consists of screenplays written by Larry McMurtry, sometimes in collaboration with other authors (Leslie Silko, Cybill Shepherd, and Peter Bogdanovich). One, Memphis, is based on a novel by Shelby Foote. The screenplays are mechanical reproductions in studio folders, some with holographic notes. Some reader responses to the screenplays are also included. Some of the screenplays were never produced.

The collection is in good condition.

Restrictions

Access Restrictions

Open for research. Copyright is retained by the authors of items in this collection, or their descendants, as stipulated by U.S. copyright law.

Related Material

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Larry McMurtry Screenplays, 1979-1988 and undated, Southwest Collection/Special Collections Library, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas

Collection accession #(s):
2008-0008-X

Purchase, 2000

Processed by

Diane Warner, 2008

Collection Inventory