It is sad to know that Larry McMurtry will not be producing any more books, as he passed away March 21, 2021. Whether it was ‘Lonesome Dove’ or one of his books on Hollywood, or ‘Terms of Endearment’ and ‘The Last Picture Show,’ he was always worth reading. For serious readers he also wrote things like ‘Books: A Memoir.
’ McMurtry was never far from the American West. He was born and died in Archer City, Texas. In the mid-to-late 1800s there was a literary form termed ‘the penny dreadful.
’ It was the first mass market pocketbook, selling for a dime or less and often celebrating the rough and lawless Old West. Characters such as Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, the James Gang and the Earp brothers, to name only a few, were built larger than life and America loved it. It was a memory that was already all but gone.
Larry McMurtry has delightfully embraced this form with ‘Telegraph Days.’ The story starts out serious, with an examination of the great migration West. But very quickly the author begins to have fun with this novel.
Nellie Courtright is from Virginia and 22 years of age. He makes her an author (among other things) and with her pen, sitting alone in the telegraph office, McMurtry examines the myth of the Old West. He does not hesitate to write himself in to the novel! Owner of one of the largest bookstores in America and a collector of fine and rare books, Larry McMurtry does not hesitate to make Nellie Courtright’s little first novel, printed in .