RIP Elmore Leonard

One of my most treasured book is an autographed copy of one of Elmore Leonard's books. A friend sent it to me because he knew I was a big fan of Elmore Leonard from when somebody told me about his books in the early 1980s. I haven't read all of the, but I have read at least 20. It didn't take a lot of time because once I picked an Elmore Leonard book up, I didn't put it down. Another friend of mine gave me a personalized autograph of Elmore Leonard, but I can't find it and it may well be in a box somewhere.

Elmore Leonard is the greatest writer of dialogue in the 20th century. Nobody, and I mean nobody, is even close. City Primeval is a great book to start with.

I feel sad and have regrets for the family, but in a selfish way, I am sorry because there won't be any new Elmore Leonard books coming out. Young writers can learn a lot from reading Elmore Leonard books.

 

From Paris Review FB page:

“I don’t like a lot of description. I like to judge for myself what a character looks like from the way he talks. I picked up on that immediately. I thought, That’s the way to go, just keep the characters talking and the reader will discover what they look like. When you are developing your style you avoid weaknesses. I am not good at describing things so I stay away from it. And if anyone is going to describe anything at all, it’s going to be from the point of view of the character, because then I can use his voice and his attitude will be revealed in the way he describes what he sees. I want to remain completely out of it. I don’t want the reader to be aware of me as the writer.”

Elmore Leonard (1925-2013), from “Como Conversazione: Criminal Conversations” in our Winter 2002 issue: http://tpr.ly/SMA1vB.

 

Talented writer. RIP.

 

When I traveled for work, I almost always had a Leonard novel with me. His stuff was perfect travel reading. The rare quick read that was actually quality.

 

Going to watch Out of Sight tonight in honor.

 

Raylan Fucking Givens. One of the greatest characters ever.

 

RIP. I've just gotten into fiction reading a couple years ago, so I'm playing catchup, but I keep meaning to get started on some of his classics. Obviously, he's left more than enough for me to savor in the future.

I have read "Get Shorty," because I loved the movie so much, and I enjoyed the book immensely.

 

Second that. Raylan doesn't take any shit, and he doesn't waste time arguing. He just moves.

Elmore Leonard also used dialogue to move his plots forward. He could run a conversation through four or six pages nonstop, and his stories would advance so quickly, and without using a lot of words. Just sharp, concise dialogue. Other writers might take entire chapters to lay things out, and it wouldn't be half as good.

 

Only a few have had as much or more influence in their genre.
Chandler.
John D. MacDonald.
Jim Thompson.

 

Yeah, I'd say its fair to say contemporary writers. Hard to compare to someone from another era, because my sense of how people spoke then is largely shaped by depictions in fiction.

 

Leonard's 10 Rules for Writing, which everyone on this board could stand to read (or read again, as the case may be):

http://www.nytimes.com/2001/07/16/arts/writers-writing-easy-adverbs-exclamation-points-especially-hooptedoodle.html

 

I send this regularly to people who want to write a novel

I met Elmore quite a number of years ago at a Canadian Booksellers Convention. About as a regular guy as you can meet. We talked for about 15 minutes on the floor in the middle of the trade show. We yakked mostly about baseball and how much he liked Toronto

Here's a nice tribute to him from the NYT in 2005

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/12/books/12leon.html?pagewanted=1&_r=0

I love that he wrote in longhand on yellow legal pads then typed the ms on an IBM Selectric


"I don't want to live forever," he said, having his daily smoke out by the pool. "What am I gonna do, write another book?

RIP