McMurtry legacy set to be remembered, pondered in Archer City and Abilene

Fans of the late author, screenwriter, bookseller and Texas legend Larry McMurtry will have more than one opportunity in the next month to celebrate his legacy.

With the release of “Pastures of the Empty Page,” a collection of 38 essays and stories about McMurtry, contributing authors, family members and McMurtry scholars will present two free programs.

On Saturday at Archer City’s Royal Theater, George Getschow, the Wall Street Journal writer and Pulitzer Prize finalist who organized and edited the collection, will host a presentation at 6 p.m. at Archer City’s Royal Theater featuring McMurtry’s brother, Charlie, and his sisters, Sue Deen and Judith McLemore.

“This will be the first time Larry’s siblings, Charlie, Sue, and Judith, have appeared in a public gathering to share their insights and perspectives of the internationally acclaimed author who considered himself ‘a minor regional novelist,'” Getschow said in a release.

He learned one of McMurtry’s lifelong writing rituals from the author’s sister.

“Before he started work on any of his novels, he would walk the perimeter of the ranch as a way to sort of channel the characters that would come to inhabit his novels,” he said.

Contributors to the book, author William Kip Stratton, former Time magazine correspondent Cathy Booth Thomas and several others will be on hand. Royalties from book sales will benefit the Archer City Writers Workshop: a Living Legacy to Larry McMurtry, a nonprofit group providing literary guidance and education to writers of all levels with the goal of keeping McMurtry’s storytelling legacy alive.

Then in Abilene on at 6 p.m. Oct. 19, Getschow will return to headline a “Fellow Writers on the Life and Legacy of Larry McMurtry” at the Grace Museum.

Co-sponsored by Texas Star Trading Company, the discussion will feature author Stephen Harrigan who is also a writer-at-large for Texas Monthly and author of the novel “The Gates of the Alamo.” Also featured will be Kathryn Jones, the author of a forthcoming biography of Ben Johnson who won an Oscar for his portrayal of Sam the Lion in “The Last Picture Show,” the 1971 motion picture based on McMurtry’s 1966 novel of the same name.

Author Beverly Lowry, “Dee Creek Drive: A Reckoning of Memory and Murder in the Mississippi Delta,” and McMurry University’s Jay-Rollins Library Emeritus Director Joe Specht, author of “The Women There Don’t Treat You Mean: Abilene in Song,” round out the presentation.

Both programs are free to the public with copies of the book available for purchase and signing.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: McMurtry set to be remembered, discussed in Archer City and Abilene