“I am deeply grateful for this award from the Mountains & Plains Independent Booksellers Association. My writings represent a long involvement with the landscape, politics and culture of the West. I decided to write my novel LONESOME DOVE in an attempt on my part to understand my father, William Jefferson McMurtry ~ a villager, a cattleman, and a thinker, who was captivated his entire life with the West, in particular the Plains West. He was the consummate working cowboy and was intrigued with the American steppe. I garnered my keen interest in the philosophy of the western plains from him.

“In addition to my writing, for the past sixty years I have owned and run several used and rare bookshops in Los Angeles, Houston, Georgetown and now finally, in my hometown of Archer City, Texas. I have had a complex career as a writer, a teacher, and as a bookseller, and frankly, the career that brings me the most pleasure and reward is that of small-time bookseller. It has been the pivot of my life, and I hope that many of you who are in the independent bookseller business find it just as rewarding.

“I will continue to write about the West. In these precarious times, I trust that many will return to the world of books, for reading can be a solace, an escape, a respite, from an ever-changing universe. Thank you.

~ Larry McMurtry

April 2020