Pulitzer Prize–winner Larry McMurtry follows up his memoir Books with this engrossing and deeply personal reflection on the life of a writer.

Larry McMurtry is that rarest of artists, a prolific and genre-transcending writer who has delighted generations with his witty and elegant prose. In Literary Life, the sequel to Books, he expounds on the private trials and triumphs of being a writer. From his earliest inkling of his future career while at Rice University, to his tenure as a Wallace Stegner fellow at Stanford with Ken Kesey in 1960, to his incredible triumphs as a bestselling author, this intimate and charming autobiography is replete with literary anecdotes and packed with memorable observations about writing, writers, and the author himself. It is a work to be cherished not only by McMurtry’s admirers, but by the innumerable aspiring writers who seek to make their own mark on American literature.

About The Author

Photo Credit: Diana Lynn Ossana

Larry McMurtry

Larry McMurtry (1936–2021) was the author of twenty-nine novels, including the Pulitzer Prize–winning Lonesome Dove, three memoirs, two collections of essays, and more than thirty screenplays. He lived in Archer City, Texas.

Product Details

Publisher: Simon & Schuster (May 10, 2011)
Length: 192 pages
ISBN13: 9781439159941

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Raves and Reviews

“A master reflects on the joy of writing . . . An invitation into the working writer’s head.” —The Boston Globe

“The master of the showstopping anecdote.” —Kristy Davis, O, The Oprah Magazine

“Entertaining and enlightening.” —David Hendricks, San Antonio Express-News

“A rambling, shambling, and ambling autobiography.” —John Barron, Chicago Sun-Times

“Mr. McMurtry is an outsider with insider stories and connections. . . . Strewn through this book’s loose narrative are stories about things like eating chicken gizzards and attending a stock car race in Texas with Susan Sontag. . . . The book is also, happily, filled with his literary enthusiasms.” —Dwight Garner, New York Times