Elmore Leonard was born on October 11, 1925. Leonard was a writer of novels, short stories, and screenplays. At the beginning of his career, he wrote mostly Westerns; when he shifted to crime and suspense novels, he became one of the country's most popular novelists.

After graduating from high school in 1943, Leonard served with the Navy Seabees in the South Pacific for three years. He enrolled at the University of Detroit in 1946 and began writing short stories. His first published story, "Trail of the Apache," appeared in 1951. Over the next fifteen years, he published about thirty short stories; they're collected in The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard (e-book | e-audio | print | audio).

In 1969, Leonard took his first step outside the Western genre with the novel The Big Bounce (e-book | e-audio | print). The elements were familiar—a dashing young thief, a stunning femme fatale, an unlikeable rich man just begging to be swindled—but Leonard brought new surprises and a crisp sense of style to the story. It's been made into a movie twice, in 1969 with Ryan O'Neal and Leigh Taylor-Young, and in 2004 with Owen Wilson and Gary Sinise.

Leonard's style has always been one of his strengths, and he is particularly praised for his skill at writing dialogue. He cites Ernest Hemingway as a major influence, and has been praised by literary notables such as Stephen King, who calls him "the great American writer", and Martin Amis, "your prose makes Raymond Chandler look clumsy". In Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing (e-book | print), Leonard says that the "most important rule" is "If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it," and that his goal is "to leave out the parts that readers tend to skip."

In 1984, Leonard's novel LaBrava (e-book | print) won the Edgar Award for Best Novel from the Mystery Writers of America; from that point on, Leonard's books routinely appeared on the bestseller lists. In 1992, the MWA gave him their Grand Master Award for Lifetime Achievement.

Leonard's gift for exciting storytelling has made him popular in Hollywood, where more than two dozen of his novels and stories have been adapted as movies or TV series. Among the most notable are the story "3:10 to Yuma," which has been filmed twice, in 1957 with Glenn Ford and Van Heflin, and in 2007 with Christian Bale and Russell Crowe Rum Punch (e-book | print), adapted by Quentin Tarantino as Jackie Brown; Get Shorty (e-book | print | DVD), and Out of Sight (e-book | e-audio | print | DVD).

Most recently, Leonard's short story "Fire in the Hole" was the basis for the TV series Justified, which ran for six seasons. Leonard's last published book returned to the same central character; his novel Raylan (e-book | e-audio | print | audio) became the primary source for the show's third season.

Elmore Leonard died on August 20, 2013, of complications after suffering a stroke. After his death, his work was honored with four Library of America collections. Much more of his writing is available in e-book and e-audio formats, and in print. Charles J. Rzepka's Being Cool (e-book | print) is an overview of Leonard's writing.

Also This Week

October 10, 1889

Han van Meegeren was born. Meegeren was a Dutch artist who felt that his talent was being overlooked by critics. He set out to prove that he could paint as well as the Old Masters—by copying them. He spent years learning to make paints using the techniques of earlier centuries and to age his canvasses. Van Meegeren confessed to his forgeries when he was charged with treason for selling a "Vermeer" to Hermann Göring during World War II, forgery carrying a much lighter punishment than treason. He became something of a national hero for having fooled the Nazis, which increased the value of his own early work so dramatically that forgers started to paint phony van Meegerens. Jonathan Lopez tells van Meegeren's story in The Man Who Made Vermeers (e-book | print).

October 13, 1925

Margaret Thatcher was born. Thatcher was the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990, the first woman to hold the office. Her conservative politics, particularly on economic issues, made her a controversial figure; they also made her a close ally of American President Ronald Reagan. She attended Reagan's funeral in 2004, against her doctor's wishes, and delivered a eulogy on tape, which she had recorded because of her own failing health. Charles Moore is the author of Thatcher's authorized biography, in two volumes (e-book | print); she also wrote an autobiography (e-book).

October 8, 1956

Don Larsen of the New York Yankees pitched a perfect game—a game in which no batter on the opposing team gets on base—in Game 5 of the World Series against the Brooklyn Dodgers. It was one of only 23 perfect games in Major League Baseball history, and the only one to happen during the World Series. The Yankees won the Series, 4 games to 3, and Larsen was named the Series' Most Valuable Player. Larsen remembers the game in The Perfect Yankee (e-book | print).

October 12, 1979

Douglas Adams's novel The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy was published in London. It was an adaptation of his radio series (e-audio | audio), a science fiction comedy in which the Earth is about to be demolished to make way for an intergalactic highway. Adams's narrative is filled with amusing, rambling digressions and colorful characters. Adams wrote four more novels in the series (which was, nevertheless, always called a "trilogy"); all five are collected in The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (e-book | print).