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As writer-in-residence of the Mayborn Literary Nonfiction Conference hosted by the University of North Texas, I conducted writing workshops with Larry McMurtry in his hometown of Archer City for more than a decade. Upon Larry's death in 2021, my literary sidekick Kathy Floyd and I edited a critically acclaimed anthology to honor Texas's literary titan and spearheaded the creation of the Larry McMurtry Literary Center (LMLC) inside Booked Up, McMurtry's internationally renowned bookshop in Archer City.
Our mission is to transform Larry's bookshop into a thriving literary mecca that showcases the author's epic life and legacy as a cowboy, teacher, novelist, screenwriter, rare book collector, and artist for the ages. Preserving, curating, and making Larry's collection of about 300,000 rare books accessible to the public is also a critical aspect of our mission. Each book is marked with his hand-written pricing and, in some cases, his whimsical commentary.
Many of the books in Larry's collection aren't available anywhere else—not at online outlets, independent bookstores, or even from other rare book dealers. His collection is so wide-ranging —covering twentieth-century English and American fiction, biographies, memoirs, literary criticism, Western Americana, travel, science, art, poetry, and out-of-print books—that many of our patrons find themselves enraptured as they walk among the towering stacks of antiquarian books Larry amassed during six decades as a "book accumulator," as he called himself.
Take Robert Faires, for example. The former arts and book editor for the Austin Chronicle had read newspaper accounts about the LMLC's efforts. A few months ago, Faires and his wife made their first trip to Archer City to see and experience McMurtry's long-shuttered bookshop breathe again. "My mind is officially blown," Faires said, with several books tucked under his arms. "This is an astounding place for anyone who loves books to see into the mind of Larry McMurtry as he collected all these books and to take something from his collected books and bring it into your own book collection. I've never, honestly, been to any place quite like this."
Since we opened the LMLC to the public eight months ago, we have been conducting private tours, lectures, writing workshops, book club group discussions, and special educational programs for people of all ages. Earlier this month, the LMLC conducted a guided educational tour of McMurtry's "Temple of Books" for more than three hundred fourth- and seventh-graders from across Archer County. A few weeks ago, I gave several lectures about Larry's life and literature at Midwestern State University's Lifelong Learning Center in Wichita Falls.
The LMLC's massive book collection serves as the bedrock of our educational programs—all aimed at inspiring current readers and writers and creating a new generation of book lovers like Larry, who harnessed the wisdom of books to become one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century.
Our website offers a digital vision of Larry's former bookshop, a cultural landmark and one of Texas's and the nation's literary treasures. Through Larry's books and our educational efforts, the LMLC is already contributing to the revitalization of Archer City and its surrounding region by attracting literary tourism.
Since we purchased Booked Up from Chip and Joanna Gaines of Fixer Upper fame in October 2024, we've been deeply engaged in the restoration and preservation of the 300,000 books housed inside Larry's former bookshop. But we're also actively seeking to acquire and preserve the crown jewel of Larry's astonishing athenaeum—his personal library collection of 28,000 volumes that James Gannon, a rare book collector and a member of the LMLC's Advisory Board, purchased shortly after Larry's death from Larry's son James, the executor of Larry's estate.
Mr. Gannon is attempting to sell all 28,000 volumes of Larry's athenaeum from his InkQ Rare Books storefront in Addison, Texas, or from distributors like the LMLC. He approached the LMLC about five months ago, asking if we would stock and sell McMurtry's personal library collection in exchange for a sales commission. As a start-up nonprofit, the commissions sounded attractive, and we accepted his offer. But we also realize that, by selling InkQ's books, we're selling the most cherished of all the books Larry acquired during his sixty years as a book buyer. Each book in his personal library contains a bookplate with the image of a stirrup—the McMurtry Ranch brand—a symbol of Larry's deep affection for his ranching heritage.
Indeed, Larry's personal library meant more to him than the Pulitzer Prize for Lonesome Dove. More than the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay for the film Brokeback Mountain. And more than the National Humanities Medal from President Barack Obama. As Larry wrote in his memoir Books, forming his personal library "is my greatest achievement."
That's why the LMLC is working feverishly to obtain funding to purchase McMurtry's entire collection of 28,000 volumes. Our goal is to create the Larry McMurtry Personal Library Collection inside the literary center before his beloved books are scattered like leaves across the world.
We hope to house the personal collection in a room replicating the private library inside McMurtry's home on South Ash Street in Archer City. Of course, we would not sell these books. We would make them available to scholars, writers, and readers to read, study, and engage with cognitively and emotionally—just like Larry did each night before going to bed.
These days, McMurtry is once again in the public spotlight. It's the fortieth anniversary of the publication of his epic trail drive saga, Lonesome Dove, sparking a whirlwind of activity from his publisher, the media, his worldwide fandom, and academia. Simon & Schuster released a new edition of Larry's novel with a foreword by Taylor Sheridan, one of the most successful western writers in America today. "I first read Lonesome Dove in the spring of 1989," Sheridan writes. "To say it enthralled me, shocked me, and sparked my imagination before it shattered me is an understatement." Sheridan said he was so enthralled with Larry's novel that he probably reread it fifty times.
The irony is that, if Larry were alive today, he would be appalled by all the hoopla surrounding Lonesome Dove. On the rare occasion he talked about his celebrated novel, he'd downplay it. "It ain't no masterpiece," he'd say.
Larry much preferred talking about his passion for book collecting and reading. During workshops, he frequently told aspiring writers to "read, read, read" if they wanted to write anything worth reading. And even though Larry wrote a number of bestsellers during the three decades following the publication of Lonesome Dove, he identified more as a reader than a writer. "I spin out my daily pages as rapidly as possible," he said, "in order to get back to whatever I'm reading."
I now spend a lot of my time inside Larry's reincarnated bookshop, welcoming readers from across Texas and the rest of the country as they pour into Larry's famous bookshop once again. Our staff and volunteers like to tease me that, in talking to our visitors, I'm sounding more like Larry every day. "Welcome to Larry's World," I'll say. "If you love books as much as Larry did, you'll leave here in a happy state of mind."