Novelist Larry McMurtry died Thursday from heart failure at the age of 84.
McMurtry and Dan Jenkins are probably my two biggest influences as a writer. I discovered both about the time of my senior year of high school/first freshman year of college (McMurtry's All My Friends Are Going to be Strangers, Jenkins' Baja Oklahoma) long before I ever thought of writing or journalism as a career. Both were from Texas and wrote of Texas things. Both are now gone, just two years apart.
As much success as McMurtry had with screen adaptations of his work, I found myself drawn to those that never made it to Hollywood. Somebody's Darling and Some Can Whistle were particular favorites.
McMurtry seemed to have a knack for making a melancholy tale grab hold of a reader and not let go. The Last Picture Show and its numerous sequels captured that perfectly.
From Horseman, Pass By in 1961 to The Last Kind Words Saloon in 2014, I don't know that he ever published a bad book.