How many of Larry McMurtry's 45 books have YOU read?

I read on Writer’s Almanac this morning that today, June 3, is author Larry McMurtry’s 78th birthday. McMurtry is arguably best known for his novels “Terms of Endearment” and “Lonesome Dove,” which earned him a Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1985.

I’ve had “Lonesome Dove” on my reading "bucket list" for several years, but I haven’t taken the time to read it yet. I’m also probably the only person left on the face of the earth who hasn’t watched the popular TV mini-series based on "Lonesome Dove." It aired on CBS in 1989 and starred Tommy Lee Jones, Robert Duvall, Ricky Schroder and Danny Glover.

I have watched the motion picture adaptation of “Terms of Endearment,” which hit theaters in 1983 and won an Academy Award for Best Picture. Directed by James L. Brooks, that movie starred Shirley MacLaine, Debra Winger, Jack Nicholson, Danny DeVito, Jeff Daniels and John Lithgow. If you've never seen it, I highly recommend it. 

After reading about McMurtry on Writer’s Almanac this morning, it became more apparent to me that McMurty has had a long and distinguished career as not only a novelist, but also as an essayist, screenwriter and nonfiction writer. By my count, he’s written 45 books and what follows is an alphabetical list of those books that I pieced together. This list does not include the many screenplays and essays that he’s written over the years.

Without further ado, here’s a complete list of McMurtry’s books:

1.      “All My Friends Are Going To Be Strangers” (1972)

2.      “Anything For Billy” (1988)

3.      “Books: A Memoir” (2008)

4.      “Boone’s Lick” (2000)

5.       “Buffalo Girls” (1990)

6.      “By Sorrow’s River” (2003)

7.      “Cadillac Jack” (1982)

8.      “The Colonel and Little Missie” (2005)

9.      “Comanche Moon” (1997)

10.  “Crazy Horse: A Life” (1999)

11.  “Custer” (2012)

12.  “Dead Man’s Walk” (1995)

13.  “The Desert Rose” (1983)

14.  “Duane’s Depressed” (1999)

15.  “The Evening Star” (1992)

16.  “Film Flam: Essays on Hollywood” (1987)

17.   “Folly and Glory” (2004)

18.  “Hollywood: A Third Memoir” (2011)

19.  “Horseman, Pass By” (1961)

20.  “In A Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas” (1968)

21.   “The Last Kind Words Saloon” (2014)

22.  “The Last Picture Show” (1966)

23.  “The Late Child” (1995)

24.  “Leaving Cheyenne” (1963)

25.  “Literary Life: A Second Memoir” (2009)

26.  “Lonesome Dove” (1985)

27.  “Loop Group” (2005)

28.   “Moving On” (1970)

29.  “Oh What a Slaughter!: Massacres in the American West, 1846-1890” (2005)

30.  “Paradise” (2002)

31.   “Pretty Boy Floyd” (1994)

32.  “Rhino Ranch: A Novel” (2009)

33.  “Roads: Driving America’s Great Highways” (2000)

34.  “Sacagawea’s Nickname: Essays on the American West” (2001)

35.  “Sin Killer” (2002)

36.  “Somebody’s Darling” (1978)

37.  “Some Can Whistle” (1989)

38.   “Streets of Laredo” (1993)

39.  “Telegraph Days” (2006)

40.  “Terms of Endearment” (1975)

41.  “Texasville” (1987)

42.  “Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen” (1999)

43.  “The Wandering Hill” (2003)

44.  “When the Light Goes” (2007)

45.  “Zeke and Ned” (1997)

 

In the end, how many of McMurtry’s books have you had a chance to read? Which did you like or dislike? Which is your favorite? Let us know in the comments section below.