Elmore (John Jr.) Leonard (1925-) Biography

Born 1925, in New Orleans, LA; married Beverly Cline, July 30, Elmore Leonard 1949 (divorced May 24, 1977); Education: University of Detroit, Ph.B., 1950. Religion: Roman Catholic.

Addresses

Agent—Michael Siegel, Michael Siegel & Associates, 11532 Thurston Circle, Los Angeles, CA 90049.

Career

Writer, 1967—. Campbell-Ewald Advertising Agency, Detroit, MI, copywriter, 1950-61; freelance copywriter and author of educational and industrial films, 1961-63; head of Elmore Leonard Advertising Company, 1963-66. Producer of film Tishomingo Blues, 2002. Military service: U.S. Naval Reserve, 1943-46.

Member

Writers Guild of America West, Authors League of America, Authors Guild.

Honors Awards

Hombre named one of the twenty-five best western novels of all time by Western Writers of America, 1977; Edgar Allan Poe Award, Mystery Writers of America, 1984, for LaBrava; Michigan Foundation of the Arts Award, 1985; Hammett Prize, International Association of Crime Writers, 1991, for Maximum Bob; Mystery Writers of America Grand Master Award, 1992; Honorary Ph.D., Florida Atlantic University, 1996, University of Detroit Mercy, 1997, and University of Michigan, 2000.

Writings

FOR CHILDREN

A Coyote's in the House, HarperEntertainment (New York, NY), 2004.

WESTERNS

The Bounty Hunters (also see below), Houghton (Boston, MA), 1953.

The Law at Randado (also see below), Houghton (Boston, MA), 1955.

Escape from Five Shadows (also see below), Houghton (Boston, MA), 1956.

Last Stand at Saber River (also see below), Dell (New York, NY), 1957, published as Lawless River, R. Hale (London, England), 1959, published as Stand on the Saber, Corgi (London, England), 1960.

Hombre (also see below), Ballantine (New York, NY), 1961.

Valdez Is Coming (also see below), Gold Medal (New York, NY), 1970.

Forty Lashes less One (also see below), Bantam (New York, NY), 1972.

Gunsights (also see below), Bantam (New York, NY), 1979.

The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1998.

Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #1 (contains The Bounty Hunters, Forty Lashes less One, and Gunsights ), Delta (New York, NY), 1998.

Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #2 (contains Escape from Five Shadows, Last Stand at Saber River, and The Law at Randado ), Delta (New York, NY), 1998.

Elmore Leonard's Western Roundup #3 (contains Valdez Is Coming and Hombre ), Delta (New York, NY), 1999.

The Complete Western Novels of Elmore Leonard, Morrow (New York, NY), 2004.

CRIME NOVELS

The Big Bounce, Gold Medal (New York, NY), 1969, revised edition, Armchair Detective, 1989.

The Moonshine War (also see below), Doubleday (New York, NY), 1969.

Mr. Majestyk (also see below), Dell (New York, NY), 1974.

Fifty-two Pick-up (also see below), Delacorte (New York, NY), 1974.

Swag (also see below), Delacorte (New York, NY), 1976, published as Ryan's Rules, Dell (New York, NY), 1976.

Unknown Man, No. 89, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1977.

The Hunted (also see below), Dell (New York, NY), 1977.

The Switch, Bantam (New York, NY), 1978.

City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit (also see below), Arbor House (New York, NY), 1980.

Gold Coast (also see below), Bantam (New York, NY), 1980, revised edition, 1985.

Split Images (also see below), Arbor House (New York, NY), 1981.

Cat Chaser (also see below), Arbor House (New York, NY), 1982.

Stick (also see below), Arbor House (New York, NY), 1983.

LaBrava (also see below), Arbor House (New York, NY), 1983.

Glitz, Arbor House (New York, NY), 1985.

Elmore Leonard's Dutch Treat (contains The Hunted, Swag, and Mr. Majestyk ), introduction by George F. Will, Arbor House (New York, NY), 1985.

Elmore Leonard's Double Dutch Treat (contains City Primeval: High Noon in Detroit, The Moonshine War, and Gold Coast ), introduction by Bob Greene, Arbor House (New York, NY), 1986.

Bandits, Arbor House (New York, NY), 1987.

Touch, Arbor House (New York, NY), 1987.

Freaky Deaky, Morrow (New York, NY), 1988.

Killshot, Morrow (New York, NY), 1989.

Get Shorty, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1990.

Maximum Bob, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1991.

Rum Punch, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1992.

Three Complete Novels (contains LaBrava, Cat Chaser, and Split Images ), Wings Books (New York, NY), 1992.

Pronto, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1993.

Riding the Rap, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1995.

Out of Sight, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1996.

Cuba Libre, Delacorte (New York, NY), 1998.

Be Cool (sequel to Get Shorty ), Delacorte (New York, NY), 1999.

Pagan Babies, Delacorte (New York, NY), 2000.

Tishomingo Blues, Morrow (New York, NY), 2002.

Mr. Paradise, Morrow (New York, NY), 2004.

The Hot Kid, Morrow (New York, NY), 2005.

SCREENPLAYS

The Moonshine War (based on Leonard's novel of the same title), Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, 1970.

Joe Kidd, Universal, 1972.

Mr. Majestyk (based on Leonard's novel of the same title), United Artists, 1974.

High Noon, Part 2: The Return of Will Kane, Columbia Broadcasting System, 1980.

(With Joseph C. Stinson) Stick (based on Leonard's novel of the same title), Universal, 1985.

(With John Steppling) 52 Pick-up (based on Leonard's novel of the same title), Cannon Group, 1986.

(With Fred Walton) The Rosary Murders (based on the novel by William X. Kienzle), New Line Cinema, 1987.

Desperado, National Broadcasting Corporation, 1988.

(With Joe Borrelli) Cat Chaser (based on Leonard's novel of the same title), Viacom, 1989.

(With Quentin Tarantino) Jackie Brown (based on Leonard's novel Rum Punch ), Miramax, 1997.

Also author of filmscripts for Encyclopedia Britannica Films, including Settlement of the Mississippi Valley, Boy of Spain, Frontier Boy, and Julius Caesar, and of a recruiting film for the Franciscans.

OTHER

When the Women Come out to Dance (short fiction), William Morrow (New York, NY), 2002.

Contributor to books, including The Courage to Change: Personal Conversations about Alcoholism, edited by Dennis Wholey, Houghton (Boston, MA), 1984. Contributor of stories and novelettes to Dime Western, Argosy, Saturday Evening Post, Zane Grey's Western Magazine, and other publications.

Adaptations

The novelette 3:10 to Yuma was filmed by Columbia Pictures, 1957; the story "The Tall T" was filmed by Columbia, 1957; Hombre was filmed by Twentieth Century-Fox, 1967; The Big Bounce was filmed by Warner Bros., 1969, and 2004; Valdez Is Coming was filmed by United Artists, 1970; Glitz was filmed for television by NBC; Get Shorty was filmed by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)/United Artists, 1995; Touch was filmed by Lumiere, 1996; Rum Punch was adapted for film by Quentin Tarantino as Jackie Brown, 1997; Out of Sight, directed by Steven Soderbergh, screenplay by Scott Frank, was filmed by Universal, 1998; Karen Sisco (based on characters from Out of Sight ) was developed for television by ABC, 2003; screen rights to the novella Tenkiller were purchased by Paramount, 2002; Be Cool was filmed by MGM, 2005; Tishomingo Blues was adapted for film in 2005; Killshot was adapted for film in 2006. Many of Leonard's novels have been adapted as audiobooks, including Mr. Paradise, and A Coyote's in the House, both Harper Audio, 2004.

Work in Progress

A sequel to The Hot Kid.

Sidelights

A popular crime novelist who has seen several of his novels become feature films, Elmore Leonard carries on the tradition of the pulp novelists of the early twentieth century. Considered among the best authors writing modern crime fiction, he has earned particular praise for his dark humor and for a prose style that reflects the gritty realities of modern life. While his fame rests on such best-selling novels as Get Shorty, Tishomingo Blues, and Mr. Paradise, Leonard started his career penning genre Westerns; he has also authored screenplay adaptations of his novels and has tackled a new format—children's books—with the 2004 novel A Coyote's in the House.

Born in Louisiana, Leonard has lived in Detroit, Michigan for most of his life, and graduated from the University of Detroit in 1950. He began his writing career a few years later and, realizing where the strongest market was, began penning western stories for pulp magazines. His first sale was the novelette Apache Agent, for which Argosy magazine paid ninety dollars. Moving to longer works, he published five western novels while also working full time as an advertising copywriter. While copywriting did not appeal to the young author, as Bill Dunn noted in Publishers Weekly, "it allowed him precious time and a steady paycheck to experiment with fiction, which he did in the early morning before going off to work." Leonard told Dunn: "Sometimes I would write a little fiction at work, too. I would write in my desk drawer and close the drawer if somebody came in."

By the early 1960s western genre fiction was on the decline, and Leonard found the market for his fiction drying up. For several years he devoted his time to freelance copywriting, working frequently for the company that manufactured Hurst gear shifters, a popular feature in hot rod cars. He also wrote scripts for industrial films for Detroit-area companies and educational films for Encyclopedia Britannica at one thousand dollars apiece. This all ended in 1965, when his agent sold the film rights to Leonard's novel Hombre for ten thousand dollars.

Once again with enough of a financial cushion to take the risk with fiction, Leonard returned to writing novels, this time working in the mystery-suspense genre, and his urban detectives approached their task with the same grim determination and glib wisecracking as had his gunfighters. The typical Leonard novel, Michael Kernan explained in the Washington Post, is distinguished by "guns, a killing or two or three, fights and chases and sex. Tight, clean prose, ear-perfect, whip-smart dialogue. And, just beneath the surface, an acute sense of the ridiculous." Leonard's books are often peopled by anxious, lower-class characters hoping to make some quick money in a big heist or quickie scam. Inevitably, they "fall into crime," as Tucker explained, "because it's an easier way to make money than that tedious nine-to-five." George Stade, writing in the New York Times Book Review, called Leonard's villains "treacherous and tricky, smart enough to outsmart themselves, driven, audacious and outrageous, capable of anything, paranoid … and rousing fun."

Working in a new genre, Leonard had a slow start; his first crime novel, The Big Bounce, was rejected by some eighty-four publishers and film producers before being released as a paperback original by Gold Medal in 1969. Over a decade later Stick signaled that its author had made it to bestselling writer status. One of Leonard's best-known novels is Get Shorty, about Chili Palmer, a Miami loan shark who travels to Hollywood in pursuit of a man but who becomes entangled with a third-rate film producer, a washed-up actress, and several cocaine dealers. Palmer returns in Be Cool as Chili helps the career of a struggling young singer in the hopes that there is a good film plot in it, but finds himself up against the young woman'g previous manager, the Russian mob, and a gang of rappers. In the novel Maximum Bob a Florida judge—his nickname reflects his fondness for the electric chair—attempts to drive his wife away so that he can pursue a more interesting woman. In Out of Sight twenty-nine-year-old U.S. Marshall Karen Sisco runs into escaping convict Jack Foley. Romance ensues in a quirky, convoluted plot that involves Foley's raid on the home of an ex-junk bond trader who supposedly has millions of dollars hidden inside. Set in Cuba around the time of the Spanish-American War, Cuba Libre combines adventure, history, and romance in the story of Ben Tyler, a bank-robbing vigilante who only robs banks that contain the money of folks who owe him money.

The veteran crime novelist's "knack for creating intriguing, strong characters is evident in his first children's book," according to School Library Journal reviewer Ellen Fader. A Coyote's in the House, designed for middle-grade readers, follows jive-talking, gang-leading coyote Antwan, as he meets up with two canine residents of posh Hollywood Hills: German shepherd Buddy, a creaky-legged former film star, and champion poodle Miss Betty. Buddy has had enough of the good life, and talks Antwan into changing places so that the older dog can enjoy a more eventful life on the streets. Taken in by Buddy's owners, who believe Antwan to be a stray dog, the newly named "Timmy" settles down in his ritzy new digs in an enjoyable proximity to the fetching Miss Betty, helping friend Buddy regain his former confidence in the process. Praising Leonard's "quirky characters; snappy dialogue; short, visual scenes; and tight plotting," Horn Book reviewer Betty Carter dubbed A Coyote's in the House a "blue-ribbon, canine version" of The Prince and the Pauper, nineteenth-century American humorist Mark Twain's classic novel about trading identities and social class. Noting that the novel's main strength is the pithy dialogue among the dogs, Bill Ott concluded in a Booklist review that while some of Leonard's dry humor might fall under the radar of younger readers, the book reveals that the author "can mix comedy and reality as nimbly for a younger audience as he does for adults."

Interestingly, although he has spent much of his career penning long fiction, Leonard found novels intimidating as a child. As he once noted, he now tries to spare his readers the same situation by working "to leave out the boring parts" in his books. A disciplined author, Leonard writes every day of the week, longhand, sitting at a desk in the corner of his living room.