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Order of Larry McMurtry Books
If the American West had a voice, it wouldn’t be a dusty old cowboy mumbling into the wind—it would be Larry McMurtry, typewriter blazing, smirking at sentimentality even as he broke your heart. Born on June 3, 1936, in the tiny ranch town of Archer City, Texas, McMurtry lived and breathed the very land he would later immortalize in novels that redefined the Western genre. He didn’t just write about cowboys—he wrote about their ghosts, their regrets, their humanity.
He died on March 25, 2021, but make no mistake: Larry McMurtry’s pen left scorch marks on the American literary landscape.
Raised on a ranch with no books in sight, young Larry’s destiny changed when a cousin gifted him a box of novels during World War II. That was the Big Bang. From then on, stories weren’t just entertainment—they were a calling. He went on to earn a B.A. from North Texas State University in 1958, followed by a Master’s from Rice University in 1960. He even earned a Stegner Fellowship at Stanford, where he rubbed elbows with literary giants like Ken Kesey. And yes, he once famously wrote a novel on a Hermes 3000 typewriter—one he kept using for over 30 years.
But McMurtry wasn’t just a man of words—he was a man of many contradictions. A bookworm who sold books. A Western writer who hated the romanticism of the Old West. A realist who wrote sweeping epics. He was co-owner of Booked Up, one of the largest used bookstores in the U.S., and took it upon himself to rescue forgotten titles from literary oblivion.
And then, of course, came “Lonesome Dove”—a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel that dragged the cowboy mythos out of the saloon and into the gritty, blood-stained light of mortality, love, and friendship. It made readers cry, laugh, and rethink what they thought they knew about American masculinity. Ironically, McMurtry had intended it as a demythologizing blow to the Western—and instead, it became its greatest love letter.
His bibliography is an embarrassment of riches: over 30 novels, more than a dozen screenplays, memoirs, essays, and collections of letters. His work earned him the Pulitzer Prize, an Oscar for co-writing Brokeback Mountain, and an audience that spanned generations. But perhaps his greatest legacy lies in the raw, often uncomfortable honesty he brought to storytelling. He turned dusty trails into metaphors for aging. He made broken marriages seem like frontier battles. He turned quiet moments into revolutions of the soul.
Larry McMurtry didn’t believe in heroes. He believed in people—and that’s what makes his fiction unforgettable.
If you haven’t read him yet, don’t worry—the West isn’t going anywhere. But you might want to saddle up soon. There are stories waiting on the horizon, and McMurtry's spirit is riding ahead, whispering, “Don’t worry, it’s not about the cattle. It never was.”
Publication Order of Series Books
Publication Order of BERRYBENDER NARRATIVES
| Title | Year | Amazon Links |
|---|---|---|
| Sin Killer | 2002 | Amazon |
| The Wandering Hill | 2003 | Amazon |
| By Sorrow's River | 2003 | Amazon |
| Folly and Glory | 2004 | Amazon |
Publication Order of Last Picture Show
| Title | Year | Amazon Links |
|---|---|---|
| The Last Picture Show | 1966 | Amazon |
| Texasville | 1987 | Amazon |
| Duane's Depressed | 1999 | Amazon |
| When the Light Goes | 2007 | Amazon |
| Rhino Ranch | 2009 | Amazon |
Publication Order of LONESOME DOVE
| Title | Year | Amazon Links |
|---|---|---|
| Lonesome Dove | 1985 | Amazon |
| Streets of Laredo | 1993 | Amazon |
| Dead Man's Walk | 1995 | Amazon |
| Comanche Moon | 1997 | Amazon |
Publication Order of Thalia, Texas
| Title | Year | Amazon Links |
|---|---|---|
| Horseman, Pass By / Hud | 1961 | Amazon |
| Leaving Cheyenne | 1962 | Amazon |
| Thalia | 2017 | Amazon |
Publication Order of THE HOUSTON
| Title | Year | Amazon Links |
|---|---|---|
| Moving On | 1970 | Amazon |
| All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers | 1972 | Amazon |
| Terms of Endearment | 1975 | Amazon |
| Somebody's Darling | 1978 | Amazon |
| Some Can Whistle | 1989 | Amazon |
| The Evening Star | 1992 | Amazon |
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
| Title | Year | Amazon Links |
|---|---|---|
| Missouri River | 2015 | Amazon |
| The Last Kind Words Saloon | 2014 | Amazon |
| Custer | 2012 | Amazon |
| Hollywood: A Third Memoir | 2010 | Amazon |
| Literary Life: A Second Memoir | 2009 | Amazon |
| Books: A Memoir | 2008 | Amazon |
| The Colonel and Little Missie | 2006 | Amazon |
| Telegraph Days | 2006 | Amazon |
| Loop Group | 2004 | Amazon |
| Sacagawea's Nickname: Essays on the American West | 2001 | Amazon |
| Boone's Lick | 2000 | Amazon |
| Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen | 1999 | Amazon |
| The Late Child | 1995 | Amazon |
| Buffalo Girls | 1990 | Amazon |
| Anything for Billy | 1988 | Amazon |
| The Desert Rose | 1983 | Amazon |
| Cadillac Jack | 1982 | Amazon |