In Literary Life: A Second Memoir, the second of a three-volume autobiography, Larry McMurtry, the author of 30 novels, and more than 30 screenplays, sums up his life as a man of letters. Volume 1 of his memoir deals with his life as a bookman and owner of a massive used book store in Archer City, Texas. The second installment focuses on his adventures in Hollywood as a screenwriter. McMurtry won a Pulitzer Prize for Lonesome Dove, a novel made into a popular television series. Literary Life: A Second Memoir is honest, devoid of false bravado, and provides a look into the literary life of a person who has been able to support himself on his writing. There aren't many of those people around. What follows are some passages from this engaging book:
I hoped to be a writer, but it was not until I had published my fifth book, All My Friends are Going to be Strangers, that I became convinced that I was a writer and would remain one.
Journalists mostly don't expect to be liked--Vanity Fair is not paying its writers big money to write nice things about their subjects.
Probably at least 85 percent of the books I've inscribed both to friends and strangers have found their way into the [book] market, and rather rapidly.
To this day it is not easy to get started in fiction, but the speed with which self-publishing has been established is making getting started a good deal easier...Much trash will get published, but then much trash is published even by the most reputable publishers.
Minor writers provide the stitchery of literature. Besides, major writers often find themselves writing minor books. Major writers aren't major all the time, and minor writers occasionally write better than they normally do, sometimes producing a major book. The commonwealth of literature is complex, but a sense of belonging to it is an important feeling for a writer to have and to keep.
Never discount luck, in the making of a literary career, or any other career, for that matter.
I hoped to be a writer, but it was not until I had published my fifth book, All My Friends are Going to be Strangers, that I became convinced that I was a writer and would remain one.
Journalists mostly don't expect to be liked--Vanity Fair is not paying its writers big money to write nice things about their subjects.
Probably at least 85 percent of the books I've inscribed both to friends and strangers have found their way into the [book] market, and rather rapidly.
To this day it is not easy to get started in fiction, but the speed with which self-publishing has been established is making getting started a good deal easier...Much trash will get published, but then much trash is published even by the most reputable publishers.
Minor writers provide the stitchery of literature. Besides, major writers often find themselves writing minor books. Major writers aren't major all the time, and minor writers occasionally write better than they normally do, sometimes producing a major book. The commonwealth of literature is complex, but a sense of belonging to it is an important feeling for a writer to have and to keep.
Never discount luck, in the making of a literary career, or any other career, for that matter.
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