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Elmore Leonard

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Elmore Leonard
Born (1925-10-11) October 11, 1925 (age 99)
New Orleans, Louisiana
Occupationwriter, screenwriter
GenrePulp fiction, Westerns

Elmore John Leonard, Jr. (born October 11, 1925), is a popular American novelist and screenwriter.

Biography

Leonard was born in New Orleans, but his father worked as a site locator for General Motors and the family moved frequently for several years. In 1934 the family finally settled in Detroit, Michigan and Leonard has made this area his home ever since.

In the 1930s, two major events occurred that would influence many of his works. Gangsters such as Bonnie and Clyde were making national headlines, as were the Detroit Tigers baseball team. From about 1931 to 1934, Bonnie and Clyde were on a rampage, and were killed in May 1934. The Tigers made it to the World Series in 1934. Leonard turned these events into lifelong fascinations with both sports and guns.

Leonard graduated from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School in 1943 and immediately joined the Navy, where he served with the Seabees for three years in the south Pacific. In 1946 he enrolled at the University of Detroit, where he pursued writing more seriously, entering his work in short story contests and sending it off to magazines. A year before he graduated, he got a job as a copy writer for an ad agency, a position he kept for several years as he wrote on the side. He graduated in 1950 with a degree in English and Philosophy.

Leonard had his first success in 1951 when Argosy published the short story "Trail of the Apache." During the '50s and early '60s, he continued writing westerns, publishing over 30 short stories. He wrote his first novel, "The Bounty Hunters," in 1953 and followed this with four other novels. Two of his stories were turned into movies at this time, "The Tall T" and "3:10 to Yuma."

Leonard—or "Dutch," as he is sometimes called—got his first break in the fiction market during the 1950s, regularly publishing pulp western novels. He has since forayed into mystery, crime, and more topical genres, as well as screenwriting.

Leonard now lives with his family in Oakland County, Michigan.

Writing style

He has been commended by critics for his gritty realism and strong dialogue. His writing style sometimes takes liberties with grammar in the interest of speeding along the story. In his essay, "Elmore Leonard's Ten Rules of Writing," he writes, "My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it." Also on the subject of what makes his books so readable, he has said that he leaves out the parts that readers skip.[1]

Leonard has been called "the Dickens of Detroit" because of his intimate portraits of people from that city. Leonard's ear for dialogue and ability to render same on the printed page are uncanny and have been praised by writers such as Saul Bellow and Martin Amis. "Your prose makes Raymond Chandler look clumsy," Amis told Leonard at a Writers Guild Theatre event in Beverly Hills in 1998. [2]

Film work

Aside from the short stories already noted, a number of Leonard's novels have been adapted as films, perhaps most notably Out of Sight, Get Shorty in 1995, and Rum Punch (as the 1997 film Jackie Brown). He has also written several screenplays. The 1967 film "Hombre" starring Paul Newman was an adaptation of Leonard's novel of the same name.

"3:10 to Yuma" (both versions) and "The Tall T" are based on Western short stories authored by Leonard.

Other novels filmed include: "Mr. Majestyk" (with Charles Bronson), "Valdez Is Coming" (Burt Lancaster), "The Big Bounce" (twice), "52 Pickup" (Roy Scheider), "Stick" (Burt Reynolds), "Moonshine War" (Alan Alda), "Last Stand at Saber River" (Tom Selleck), "Gold Coast" (David Caruso), "Glitz" (Jimmy Smits), "Cat Chaser" (Peter Weller), "Touch" (Christopher Walken), "Pronto" (Peter Falk) and "Be Cool" (John Travolta).

The TV series "Karen Sisco" starring Carla Gugino was based on the character from "Out of Sight" played by Jennifer Lopez.

A 2001 comedy film, Bandits was originally meant to be an adaptation of Leonard's novel by that name, to which Bruce Willis owns the film rights. But the producers brought in writer Harley Peyton to write a new script from scratch.

Work

Novels

Wikiquote has quotations related to Elmore Leonard.

Screenplays

Stories

Short stories turned into films:

Nonfiction

  • 10 Rules of Writing (2007)

Radio

  • Actor Robert Forster recorded a public service announcement for Deejay Ra's 'Hip-Hop Literacy' campaign encouraging reading of books by Elmore Leonard.
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