http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elmore_Leonard
I know that this is a few days late to actually be news. I am just sharing what he meant to me.
(This will also be the first time that I ever posted something remotely negative on this blog.)
The news: this 87-year old author died. He had 45 novels to his name as well as screenplay credits. Some of his most popular novels were turned into movies, the most famous being Get Shorty with Jackie Brown a close second.
I first discovered his writing in a crime fiction course at junior college in 1987. Glitz was the book. Look for it yourself… Amazon sales links from me would be crass. Right away his writing style appealed to me.
He was against flowery text or fancy wording. He felt that they slowed down the stories. As a result his words in print were lean and to the point. His ear for dialogue always was great reading.
He was known to me as an author of suspense and crime fiction, but he began his career writing westerns. The 3:16 to Yuma (hopefully I have the title right) was one of his.
He was a writer that I’ll never forget. If I can ever write dialogue similar to his I’ll be a happy man.
Related articles
- Elmore Leonard, Best-Selling Author of Crime Novels, Dies at 87 – Bloomberg (bloomberg.com)
- Elmore Leonard’s ‘Jackie Brown,’ Revisiting Tarantino’s True Classic (contactmusic.com)
- Elmore Leonard’s writing rules (lookingglasslanguage.com)
