As no more cowboy Jokes here…
Yeah, Y’all may be saying why am I scribblin’
about Larry McMurtry on No Fenders, Eh? But He does have a slight connection to
automobiles, in the sense He loved road trips for much of His life. Not to
mention renting the latest Lincoln or Cadillac for these Coast-to-coast jaunts…
As Larry would routinely ask His uncle or
somebody where does Highway 271 go to? Apparently the only major road passing
His Grandfather’s ranch in Archer City. To which whomever He asked? Would
always grunt derisively and say nowhere…
Following High School graduation, Larry entered
Rice University in Houston, when admission was free to white students. Although
Rice had warned Him that His math skills were deficient. And following His
first year, He transferred to University of North Texas. Being closer to home,
where He also had a High School Buddy attending. Graduating with a BA in 1958,
before returning to Rice for His MA in 1960.
Larry also was a Wally Stegner Fellow between 1960-61,
where His classmates included Ken Kesey, Wendell Berry, Peter S. Beagle and
Gurney Norman in Stanford’s Creative Writing Center. Honing His Fiction writing
skills, and presumably working upon what would become His first published novel
Horseman, pass By, also in 1961.
McMurtry notes that Ken Kesey entered the
classroom and made a Beeline to the front of the room, letting the rest know He
intended to be the class’s Alpha male, albeit Kesey and McMurtry would be
friends for many years.
Returning to Houston in 1963, taking teaching
roles at Texas Christian University (TCU) and Rice. Larry would be visited by
Kesey and the Merry Pranksters in Kesey’s psychedelic painted converted school
bus enroute to New York city for the 1964 World’s Fair. As this adventure would
later be chronicled in Tom Wolfe’s 1968 novel The Electric Kool-Aid Acid Test,
about the 1960’s Counter Culture revolution.
McMurtry called the decade between Terms of
Endearment and Lonesome dove His most fallow period of writing, publishing just
three novel. Which if I have them correctly? Are Somebody’s Darling, (1978)
Cadillac Jack (1982) and The Desert Rose. (1983) With some critics denoting
these three books as the Trash Trilogy, Youch!
As Larry Himself notes that He started and
stopped on the writing of Lonesome dove three times. And at some 900-1,200
pages was taking seriously long to develop, especially since the Cattle drive
had another 1,000 miles to go…
McMurtry was a raconteur of food and enjoyed
going out to dinner for a good meal with beautiful women. As He was good
friends with both Cybill Sheppard and Diane Keaton to name just a few.
Larry wore large polo shirts to hide his
increasing girth and when in Archer City, had a cheeseburger for lunch everyday
at the local DQ’. (Dairy Queen)
Sometime in Fall of 1991, after a typical day’s
activities of writing five to ten pages and moving books from His ranch house
to His Archer City bookstore. Larry hit a cow on a gravel road, which He
claimed was normal in rural Texas…
The next day He stopped at His Internist to get
some medicine for a cough that wouldn’t go away, thinking it was from lugging
around dusty books. The Doctor said He didn’t look so good and ordered an EKG,
before saying OMG, you’re having a heart attack!
Yet the room He was in was so small they
couldn’t get the stretcher into it, but wouldn’t allow Him to walk out of the
room. So the stretcher had to be disassembled, before the starstruck ambulance
driver drove off a high curb after learning it was the author of Lonesome dove
He was transporting! Causing the IV bags to jostle and the needles pull upon
Larry strapped on a gurney…
Next, an Angiogram was performed, with Larry
watching on a four inch screen the insides of His heart, learning He had at
least three major arteries blocked and needed immediate bypass surgery! But
McMurtry needed to finish the book He was writing first, The Evening Star an
immediate sounded like six months to Him. Which sounds like a typical writer to
Mwah…
On December 2, 1991 after much convincing by
His Doctors, telling Larry He’d feel fine right up until the day He keeled
over! McMurtry underwent quadruple heart bypass surgery, where He was put on a
heart lung machine; to continue blood and oxygen while the heart is stopped.
And then His heart was removed from His chest cavity and put into a cooler at
28 degrees Celsius while doctors rerouted His veins past the major blockages,
grafting veins from His feet or legs.
four hours later, they simply reinstalled His
heart and with everything re-attached, shocked His heart back into beating and
“buttoned” Him up!
As I must say that this analogy comes from
watching myriads of TV car builder shows made me instantly think of when they
go to fire the new engine for the first time. And that I had to re-read this
section a second time for clarity…
Since the first time I heard the part about
removing His heart when listening to the book in the evening, I kind of got the
creeps wondering to myself is this how they performed my open heart surgery? Although
I’m 98% certain that my heart wasn’t removed from my body, but it’s a very
chilling thought afterwards…
Even
stranger yet is how McMurtry simply rested for ten days at His Georgetown
dwelling before resuming life as normal, i.e.; driving to Texas for Christmas,
albeit avoiding His mother as much as possible! And then just going back to His
normal working life of running a rare book store, writing, etc. As this seems
very odd to me, especially since I couldn’t do anything initially, besides
sleep! Along with zero strenuous activity for the first eight weeks…
Thus, He lived nearly another thirty years
after having quadruple heart bypass surgery at the end of 1991. And suffered
from great depression following His surgery before writing Streets of Laredo
with writing partner Diana Ossana.
As Diana was instrumental in bringing Him out
of His “funk”, with McMurtry recovering at Her house in Tucson. And would
transcribe Larry’s written draft written in Her kitchen onto the computer.
As Larry initially would write five pages a day
on an old typewriter, and during His initial recovery period would write 90mins
each morning.
Interestingly, Larry McMurtry married Norma Fay
Kesey, the widow of Ken Kesey in 2011, in His hometown of Archer City. Larry
was 74 and Faye was 76.
Ken Kesey was the author of One Flew Over the
Cuckoo’s Nest, which ironically just celebrated the movie’s 50th anniversary on
July 13th &16th. When the re-released movie was shown on limited theatres
in Washington and Oregon. Although supposedly this was occurring nationwide.
Wasn’t aware that Michael Douglass was the
producer of the film, which stars Jack Nicholson and Danny DeVito.
As the movie was nominated for nine Oscar
awards, although Douglass said He had to work very hard to get Nicholson to
attend the awards ceremony. As Nicholson had been nominated five times and
failed to win five times previously.
Striking out on the first four nominations,
Nicholson began lambasting Douglass, who said Hang in there Jack. Before the
movie swept the five “biggies”, i.e.; Best Picture, Director, Actor,, Actress
and Screenplay.
Which had only occurred once before in 1934 for
It Happened One Night. And only once since for Silence of the Lambs. (1991)
Kesey grew up in Springfield, Oregon and
graduated from the University of Oregon, and was a longtime resident of Eugene.
Before dying at age 66 in November, 2001.
While McMurtry was a prolific writer, with some
40 novels alone written. Not to mention His massive screenplay writing career
for both film and television.
As McMurtry’s novels adapted for film garnered
34 Oscar nominations, and won 13. Including McMurtry and Diana Ossana
co-winning for Best Adaptive Screenplay for Brokeback Mountain in 2005.
As Larry made His portion of His acceptance
speech wearing jeans and cowboy boots underneath His tuxedo jacket. Thanking
His typewriter and urging everyone to support books, for which without, there
would be no stories.
And this doesn’t even include all of the Emmy nominations and awards His Lonesome Dove mini-series and television work received…
