Western Star - by David Streitfeld (Hardcover)

Book Synopsis

By his longtime friend and a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist, the definitive biography of Larry McMurtry, the legendary author and screenwriter of Lonesome Dove, The Last Picture Show, and Brokeback Mountain, who transformed our vision of the West.

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.

For all his fame, McMurtry was an elusive figure. He loved women but was married to his typewriter; he was wary of critics and distrustful of other men--except David Streitfeld. When McMurtry gave the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist the keys to his past, Streitfeld dug into every archive and interviewed everyone who would talk. He found that, even as McMurtry's work criticized the old cowboy myths, he loved making up stories about himself.

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.

Review Quotes

"A dazzling masterclass in the art of biography. The enigmatic McMurtry granted Streitfeld numerous interviews before his death. These sessions combined with primary documents Streitfeld unearthed in scattered archival collections provides Western Star with an astonishingly fresh perspective on one of America's most beloved writers. An awesome reappraisal of McMurtry in all of his genius, contradictions, foibles and enduring charms."--Douglas Brinkley, Professor of History at Rice University and New York Times bestselling author of Cronkite

"Larry McMurtry is one of the major American writers of the past fifty years, and David Streitfeld captures his spirit. Western Star demystifies the man who reshaped our vision of the West. In this engaging biography, Streitfeld brings both a journalist's ear for a good story and nose for detecting a lie, making an important contribution to American letters."--Rebecca Romney, author of Jane Austen's Bookshelf

"David Streitfeld's portrait of Larry McMurtry lets us slide into a booth at the Dairy Queen alongside one of the most alluring and most mysterious of our old masters, bringing us as close as we are ever likely to get to a man whose range and depth of achievement has few parallels in American letters."--Benjamin Moser, author of the Pulitzer-winning Sontag: Her Life and Work