Elmore John Leonard Jr. ( October 11, 1925 – August 20, 2013 ) was an american novelist, inadequate history writer, and screenwriter. His earliest novels, published in the 1950s, were Westerns, but he went on to specialize in crime fabrication and suspense thrillers, many of which have been adapted into gesture pictures. Among his best-known works are Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Swag, Hombre, Mr. Majestyk, and Rum Punch ( adapted as the film Jackie Brown ). Leonard ‘s writings include short stories that became the films 3:10 to Yuma and The Tall T, equally well as the FX television serial Justified.
Reading: Elmore Leonard – Wikipedia
early life and education [edit ]
Leonard was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, the son of Flora Amelia ( née Rive ) and Elmore John Leonard, Sr. [ 1 ] Because his forefather worked as a locate locator for General Motors, the class moved frequently for several years. In 1934, the class settled in Detroit. He graduated from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School in 1943 and, after being rejected for the Marines for weak eyesight, immediately joined the Navy, where he served with the Seabees for three years in the South Pacific ( gaining the nickname “ Dutch ”, after pitcher Dutch Leonard ). [ 2 ] Enrolling at the University of Detroit in 1946, he pursued writing more badly, entering his work in shortstop narrative contests and submitting it to magazines for publication. He graduated in 1950 [ 3 ] with a bachelor ‘s degree in English and philosophy. A class before he graduated, he got a job as a transcript writer with Campbell-Ewald Advertising Agency, a position he kept for respective years, writing on the slope. [ 3 ]
career [edit ]
Leonard received his inaugural break in the fiction commercialize during the 1950s, regularly publishing pulp western novels. He had his first success in 1951 when Argosy published the short history “ Trail of the Apaches. ” [ 4 ] : 29 During the 1950s and early 1960s, he continued writing Westerns, publishing more than 30 short-change stories. He wrote his first novel, The Bounty Hunters, in 1953 and followed this with four other novels. His western novels had already begun to show his affectionateness for culturally divers outsiders and underdogs. He frequently developed his characters through negotiation, each defined by means of his manner of speaking. For many of his stories he favored Arizona and New Mexico settings. [ 5 ] Five of his westerns were turned into major movies before 1972 : The Tall T ( Randolph Scott ), 3:10 to Yuma ( Glenn Ford ), Hombre ( Paul Newman ), Valdez Is Coming ( Burt Lancaster ), and Joe Kidd ( Clint Eastwood ). In 1969, his first crime report titled The Big Bounce was published by Gold Medal Books. Leonard was unlike from the long-familiar names writing in this genre, such as Raymond Chandler or any of the early celebrated noir writers – no melodrama and pessimism, but more concerned in his characters and in realistic dialogue. The stories were much located in Detroit, but apart from his favored place he besides liked to use South Florida as a set up. LaBrava, a fresh set there published in 1983, was besides the occasion for a New York Times review, in which Leonard moved from mystery suspense short history writer to novelist. [ 6 ] His adjacent book, an Atlantic City gambling history published in 1985 and titled Glitz, was his break in the crime writing style. It spent 16 weeks on The New York Times Bestseller list. other crime novels that followed were all best sellers, adenine well. [ 7 ] [ 8 ] In his inspection of Glitz, Stephen King placed him in the same company as John MacDonald, Raymond Chandler and Dashiell Hammett, but Leonard felt more influenced by Ernest Hemingway and John Steinbeck. [ 9 ] Leonard believed that his books during the 1980s were becoming more humorous and that he was developing a style that was more free and easily. His own favorites were the Dixie Mafia floor Tishomingo Blues from 2002 and Freaky Deaky from 1988 about ex- hippie criminals. [ 10 ] There are some of his characters in parts of different novels like Hollywood gangster Chili Palmer, savings bank robber Jack Foley or the two U. S. Marshals Carl Webster and Raylan Givens. [ 11 ] [ 12 ] His crime books were published amongst others by Fawcett Publications, Bantam Books and Dell Publishing. In the 1980s his publisher was Arbor House, subsequently besides William Morrow & Company as an imprint of HarperCollins. There are different reprints from his novels ; in the 2000s this include editions from Weidenfeld & Nicolson. At the time of his death his novels had sold tens of millions of copies. [ 13 ] Among film adaptations of his work are Jackie Brown ( starring Pam Grier, directed by Quentin Tarantino ) which is a “ court to the generator ‘s hallmark rhythm and pace ” ; [ 13 ] Get Shorty ( 1995, John Travolta and Gene Hackman ) ; Out of Sight ( 1998, George Clooney and Jennifer Lopez, directed by Steven Soderbergh ) and the television series Justified. [ 14 ] about thirty movies were made from Leonard ‘s novels, but for some critics his special style worked only in print. [ 15 ]
personal life sentence [edit ]
He married Beverly Clare Cline in 1949, and they had five children together—two daughters and three sons [ 16 ] —before divorcing in 1977. His second marriage in 1979, to Joan Leanne Lancaster ( aka Joan Shepard ), ended with her death in 1993. late that lapp class, he married Christine Kent and they divorced in 2012. [ 17 ] [ 18 ] Leonard spent the last years of his life with his family in Oakland County, Michigan. He suffered a stroke on July 29, 2013. initial reports stated that he was recovering, [ 19 ] but on August 20, 2013, Leonard died at his home in the Detroit suburb of Bloomfield Hills of accident complications. [ 20 ] He was 87 years old. [ 17 ] [ 18 ] One of Leonard ‘s grandchild is Alex Leonard, the drummer in the Detroit ring Protomartyr. [ 21 ]
Writing vogue [edit ]
Commended by critics for his farinaceous realism and firm negotiation, Leonard sometimes took liberties with grammar in the interest of speeding the narrative along. [ 22 ] In his essay “ Elmore Leonard ‘s Ten Rules of Writing ” he said : “ My most crucial rule is one that sums up the 10 : If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it. ” He besides hinted : “ I try to leave out the parts that readers tend to skip. ” [ 22 ] Elmore Leonard has been called “ the Dickens of Detroit ” because of his confidant portraits of people from that city, though he said, “ If I lived in Buffalo, I ‘d write about Buffalo. ” [ 4 ] : 90 His favorite name was one given by Britain ‘s New Musical Express : “ the poet laureate of fantastic assholes with revolvers ”. [ 23 ] His ear for dialogue has been praised by writers such as Saul Bellow, Martin Amis, and Stephen King. “ Your prose makes Raymond Chandler count awkward, ” Amis told Leonard at a Writers Guild event in Beverly Hills in 1998. [ 24 ] Stephen King has called him “ the great american writer. ” [ 25 ] According to Charles Rzepka of Boston University, Leonard ‘s command of spare indirect discussion, a third-person narrative proficiency that gives the magic trick of immediate access to a character ‘s thoughts, “ is unexcelled in our meter, and among the surest of all time, even if we include Jane Austen, Gustave Flaubert, and Hemingway in the mix. ” [ 26 ] Leonard often cited Ernest Hemingway as possibly his unmarried most important influence, but at the like clock time criticized Hemingway for his miss of liquid body substance and for taking himself excessively badly. [ 27 ] hush, it was Leonard ‘s affection for Hemingway, deoxyadenosine monophosphate well as George V. Higgins, that led him to will his personal papers to the University of South Carolina, where many of Hemingway ‘s and Higgins ‘ papers are archived. Leonard ‘s papers reside at the university ‘s Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections. [ 28 ] [ 29 ] [ 30 ] Leonard in change by reversal had a identical strong influence on a genesis of crime writers that followed him. His obituary in USA Today named George Pelecanos, Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane, and Laura Lippman. [ 31 ]
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Awards and honors [edit ]
Works [edit ]
Novels [edit ]
Leonard besides contributed one chapter ( the twelfth of thirteen ) to the 1996 Miami Herald parody serial novel Naked Came the Manatee ( ISBN 0-449-00124-5 ) .
Collections [edit ]
light stories [edit ]
Screenplays [edit ]
Audiobooks [edit ]
All but three of Leonard ‘s novels have been performed as audiobooks ( the exceptions being Escape From Five Shadows, Hombre, and La Brava ). [ citation needed ] Many Leonard works ( including The Big Bounce, Be Cool and The Tonto Woman ) have been recorded more than once resulting in more than 70 English-language audiobook versions of Leonard novels. [ citation needed ] Many of these were abridgements, the last of which was Pagan Babies ( 2000 ) read by Steve Buscemi. Certain narrators have dominated the Elmore Leonard oeuvre, notably Frank Muller ( 11 audiobooks ), Grover Gardner aka Alexander Adams ( 7 ), George Guidall ( 5 ), Mark Hammer ( 5 ), and Joe Mantegna ( 5 ). other noteworthy Leonard narrators include Liev Schreiber, Neil Patrick Harris, Tom Wopat, Arliss Howard, Joe Morton, Taye Diggs, Brian Dennehy, Bruce Boxleitner, Tom Skerritt, Robert Forster, Dylan Baker, Paul Rudd, Keith Carradine, Ed Asner, Henry Rollins, and Barbara Rosenblatt, the lone female narrator of an Leonard ferment ( the floor, When the Women Come Out to Dance ). [ 37 ]
nonfiction [edit ]
- 10 Rules of Writing (2007)
- Foreword to Walter Mirisch’s book I Thought We Were Making Movies, Not History
Adaptations [edit ]
twenty-six of Leonard ‘s novels and short stories have been adapted for the riddle ( 19 as motion pictures and another seven as television programs ) .
movie [edit ]
aside from the light stories already noted, a number of Leonard ‘s novels have been adapted as films, including Get Shorty ( 1990 fresh, 1995 film ), Out of Sight ( 1996 fresh, 1998 film ), and Rum Punch ( 1992 novel, 1997 film Jackie Brown ). The novel 52 Pick-Up was inaugural adapted identical loosely into the 1984 film The Ambassador ( 1984 ), starring Robert Mitchum and, two years subsequently, under its original title starring Roy Scheider. Leonard has besides written several screenplays based on his novels, plus original screenplays such as Joe Kidd ( 1972 ). The film Hombre ( 1967 ), starring Paul Newman, was an adaptation of Leonard ‘s 1961 novel of the lapp diagnose. His short history “ Three-Ten to Yuma “ ( March 1953 ) and novel The Big Bounce ( 1969 ) and 52 Pick-Up have each been filmed twice. other novels filmed include :
Quentin Tarantino has optioned the right field to adapt Leonard ‘s novel Forty Lashes Less One ( 1972 ). [ 38 ]