Biography Essay

Although Larry McMurtry has moved beyond the status of a minor regional writer, he is still closely identified with Texas. His first six novels and a collection of essays (In a Narrow Grave, 1968) reflect life in his native state, and he has returned to Texas as a setting in his three more recent books. The son of William Jefferson McMurtry, a rancher, and Hazel Ruth Mclver McMurtry, he was born on 3 June 1936 in Wichita Falls. He was educated in Texas, receiving a B.A. from North Texas State University in 1958 and an M.A. from Rice University in 1960. A Stegner Fellowship enabled him to do further graduate work at Stanford, but he returned to Texas to teach creative writing at Rice from 1963 to 1969. In those days he was friends with Ken Kesey and wrote about the Beats. Since then he has left the academic world and...