RESIDENT author

a r r y McMurt r y i s the quintessential Texas author; the archetypal native son. He’s demonstrated his grasp of a true Texas life in, and won a Pulitzer Prize for, his novel Lonesome Dove—a tale about a pair of ex-Texas Rangersturned- ranchers who drive a herd of cattle to Montana. A few of his other novels, all of which capture the raw emotion of a hard reality, have been adapted for the screen: Terms of Endearment, The Last Picture Show, and Hud. And he won an Oscar (with his writing partner Diana Ossana) in 2006 for his adaptation of Brokeback Mountain.

His literary achievements and encyclopedic knowledge of western history precede him, but mention the time he spent in Denton at North Texas State College (currently the University of North Texas), and he’s quick to tell you not about the history of the City’s historic courthouse, or what parts of the City inspire his prose, but about how he met his ex-wife, Josephine Ballard, at the neighboring Texas Woman’s University. The pair were married in 1959, the year after he graduated. “I lived there for about two and a half years,” he says. “At that time, it was a fairly exciting school. I met my wife-to-be at TWU, and I started my first book [Horseman, Pass By] there after I graduated.”

McMurtry’s colorful life has led him to take up residence around the country, always writing and occasionally working as a book scout and bookstore owner—he can sometimes be found shelving books or working the register at Booked Up, Inc., the huge used bookstore he owns in Archer City, Texas. He still frequently visits Denton, mostly just passing through. He says he always makes at least one stop.

“I come as a book scout to Recycled Books,” he says. “I try to scout there fairly regularly. Whenever I fly back to go into Archer, I always shoot in there and buy a few books.”

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BY JASON GOODMAN