The Elmore Leonard Website

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

‘Justified’ Boss Remembers Elmore Leonard’s Final Days

The Hollywood Reporter

As FX turns 20, Graham Yost recalls the day the late author had his stroke: “He was in his sunlit room, conducting the voices he heard in his head — the characters telling their stories — in his hand a Virginia Slim trailing smoke.”

It’s Official: ‘Justified’ to End After Season 6
FX is the perfect place to do an Elmore Leonard show. Why? They allow us to do things that are identifiably Elmorian (Leonardian?)—like spend time with the bad guys and have four-minute-long scenes where people just talk—that are funny and then shockingly violent.

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Tuesday, May 13, 2014

New Still from Life of Crime

A new still has emerged for Life of Crime, the film version of The Switch and a prequel to Jackie Brown. The film will be released on August 29.

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Sunday, May 11, 2014

Seven Novels That Influenced Elmore

1. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque

Paul Baumer enlisted with his classmates in the German army of World War I. Youthful, enthusiastic, they become soldiers. But despite what they have learned, they break into pieces under the first bombardment in the trenches. And as horrible war plods on year after year, Paul holds fast to a single vow: to fight against the principles of hate that meaninglessly pits young men of the same generation but different uniforms against each other—if only he can come out of the war alive.

2. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Heminway

In 1937 Ernest Hemingway traveled to Spain to cover the civil war there for the North American Newspaper Alliance. Three years later he completed the greatest novel to emerge from “the good fight,” For Whom the Bell Tolls. The story of Robert Jordan, a young American in the International Brigades attached to an antifascist guerilla unit in the mountains of Spain, it tells of loyalty and courage, love and defeat, and the tragic death of an ideal.

3. A Stretch on the River by Richard Bissell

A Mississippi river yarn told by novelist and playwright, Richard Bissell. Although Harvard educated, Bissell worked on the Mississippi most of his life and from the very first page, A Stretch on the River (1950) sweeps the reader along much like the river that runs through it – burbling and chortling, making us laugh, and creating wonder. Bissell tells it like it is. This is how they talked, this is how they lived; and sometimes, eloquently and tenderly, this is how they died. Unerringly and with great authenticity, Bissell tells the story of the river and why it grips the men who love it.

4. Sweet Thursday by John Steinbeck

In Monterey, on the California coast, Sweet Thursday is what they call the day after Lousy Wednesday, which is one of those days that are just naturally bad. Returning to the scene of Cannery Row—the weedy lots and junk heaps and flophouses of Monterey, John Steinbeck once more brings to life the denizens of a netherworld of laughter and tears—from Doc, based on Steinbeck’s lifelong friend Ed Ricketts, to Fauna, new headmistress of the local brothel, to Hazel, a bum whose mother must have wanted a daughter.

5. Bang the Drum Slowly by Mark Harris

Henry Wiggen, hero of The Southpaw and the best-known fictional baseball player in America, is back again, throwing a baseball “with his arm and his brain and his memory and his bluff for the sake of his pocket and his family.” More than a novel about baseball, Bang the Drum Slowly is about the friendship and the lives of a group of men as they each learn that a teammate is dying of cancer.

6. The Professional by W.C. Heinz

The Professional is the story of boxer Eddie Brown’s quest for the middleweight championship of the world. But it is so much more. W. C. Heinz not only serves up a realistic depiction of the circus-like atmosphere around boxing with its assorted hangers-on, crooked promoters, and jaded journalists, but he gives us two memorable characters in Eddie Brown and in Brown’s crusty trainer, Doc Carroll. They are at the heart of this poignant story as they bond together with their eye on the only prize that matters—the middleweight championship.

7. The Friends of Eddie Coyle by George V. Higgins

A down-and-dirty tale of thieves, mobsters, and cops on the mean streets of Boston. When small-time gunrunner Eddie Coyle is convicted on a felony, he’s looking at three years in the pen—that is, unless he sells out one of his big-fish clients to the DA. But which of the many hoods, gunmen, and executioners whom he calls his friends should he send up the river? Told almost entirely in crackling dialogue by a vivid cast of lowlifes and detectives, The Friends of Eddie Coyle is one of the greatest crime novels ever written.

Buy all Seven Novels at the Elmore Leonard Bookstore.

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Saturday, May 10, 2014

The Telegraph’s 20 best crime novels of all time (Get Shorty is on the list)

The Telegraph

Some say that such lists are suspect, but it least they got one right!

Get Shorty
Elmore Leonard (1990)
A loan shark attempts to make it big in Hollywood in this witty thriller loaded with Leonard’s trademark whip-smart dialogue. Martin Amis once said his prose “makes Raymond Chandler look clumsy”.

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Wednesday, May 07, 2014

Novel #4 - Last Stand at Saber River

A quiet haunted man, Paul Cable walked away from a lost cause hoping to pick up where he left off. But things have changed in Arizona since he first rode out to go fight for the Confederacy. Two brothers—Union men—have claimed his spread and they’re not about to give it back, leaving Cable and his family no place to settle in peace. It seems this war is not yet over for Paul Cable. But no one’s going to take away his land and his future—not with their laws, their lies, or their guns.

Buy the trade paperback edition here.

The TV film version of Last Stand at Saber River, premiered on TNT, January, 19, 1997.

Buy the Last Stand at Saber River DVD here.

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Sunday, May 04, 2014

Elmore’s Newsweek Cover - April 25, 1985

Newsweek Archive

Hard-Boiled: His books depart from the hard-boiled tradition in another way: from Hammett to Mickey Spillane, from Macdonald to Robert B. Parker, writers have generally told these stories in the first person. By jettisoning the security of first-person narration — a unified point of view, a single sardonic tone of voice, a sense of the hero in control — Leonard can let his characters breathe more easily, show us how matters seem to them. In this way, the reader knows more about what’s going on than the hero does.

This Newsweek cover was shot for the April 25, 1985 issue by photographer and videographer, Andy Sacks, at the First Precinct, around the corner from 1300 Beaubein, Detroit Police Headquarters. Andy went on to do other film shoots with Elmore. Check out Andy’s cool new video project, “Let’s Have Some Church Detroit Style.”

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Thursday, May 01, 2014

Swapping Stories with Elmore

This letter from Pete Crooks describes a memorable meeting with Elmore.

Dear Gregg,

Hope you are doing well. Thanks for all the great info on the website and Facebook.

I’m a Bay Area journalist, and a huge Elmore Leonard fan—I read every novel he had published during some traveling/vagabond years in the mid 1990s, and started writing because of his work, as well as Charles Willeford and Carl Hiaasen.

I had a couple of chances to meet Mr. Leonard at book signings, one was quite memorable. I’ll try and share it for you as compactly as I can:

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Wednesday, April 30, 2014
The Switch movie (Life of Crime) release date, August 29?

I read that Life of Crime, the film version of Elmore’s great novel, The Switch, will be released on August 29. I have not seen the film, nor have any additional information about it. Elmore had not seen the film either, only a tiny snippet. I read the script long ago and it was faithful to the book. There hasn’t been a good Elmore Leonard adaptation since 1998 with Out of Sight, so the bar is high.

Buy the trade edition of The Switch here.
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Friday, April 25, 2014
Novel #3 Escape from Five Shadows

Vintage Hardboiled Reads

Most know that Elmore Leonard cut his teeth writing Western stories. For a young man that grew up in Detroit, he sure supplied the reader with a palpable portrayal of the Arizona Territory in the 1880s. “The Law at Randado” was my first Leonard Western novel. That was many years ago and at that time I thought I stumbled upon a Western that was different from the generic ones that I had been reading. The impact that “Randado” left on me made me seek out Leonard’s other early Westerns. And I have read them all. One that is near the top on the list is “Escape from Five Shadows.” It’s filled with a wide variety of morally different characters stuck and struggling in a harsh piece of the dusty Arizona landscape.

Buy the trade edition of Escape from Five Shadows here.
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Wednesday, April 23, 2014
5 Questions With Jere Burns of FX’s “Justified”

Channel Guide Magazine

<
valign=“center” align=“right”>For five seasons, Jere Burns’ character on Justified has come and gone, weaved in and out of plotlines — always on the wrong side of the law, but with fluid allegiances all the same. But now Wynn Duffy is a regular on the FX hit, trying to make a go at running the drug trade in Harlan County, Ky., with his current associate and sometimes nemesis Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins). Burns’ run on Justified mirrors his career in some ways, as an actor who pops up now and again and every so often scores a big hit. Since he made an impression in 1988 on the NBC series Dear John, Burns has gone on to win notable roles in shows like Breaking Bad, Bates Motel and now Justified. He took time to answer our “5 Questions.”

Read the rest.
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Monday, April 21, 2014
LISTEN UP: It’s All Elmore

Jack Spiegelman sent me this message:

hi gregg: the question i always have when reading one of elmore leonards books is: how does a man like this, white and middle class as you can get, manage to recreate so convincingly the dialogue of some low life, some white trash biker type or, even better, some pimp/gangbanger/jailbird from the ghetto. I find it hard to visualize elmore himself becoming tight with these people—or jerkoffs as elmore might put it.. So my question really is: are you the person becoming tight with them. The dialogue, the flavor and rythms of the speech are totally convincing and he is getting it from somewhere and I cant figure out how.

First, I don’t consider Elmore to be “middle-class,” but that’s not the point. I liked Jack’s puzzlement. I’m amused that he thinks I might have had something to do with Elmore’s dialog. There might be some odd expression he pulled out of a transcript, but what Jack’s talking about is not jargon, but Elmore’s fundamental sense of how people talk. That is, simply put, his gift; his uncanny ear. He just knows. It can’t be properly explained, but academics still try. (That was always a source of amusement to Elmore.)

He would just say: “Don’t you hear different sounds when people talk. Don’t you listen?”
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Friday, April 18, 2014
#2 The Law at Randado

Phil Sundeen thinks Deputy Sheriff Kirby Frye is just a green local kid with a tin badge. And when the wealthy cattle baron’s men drag two prisoners from Frye’s jail and hang them from a high tree, there’s nothing the young lawman can do about it. But Kirby’s got more grit than Sundeen and his hired muscle bargained for. They can beat the boy and humiliate him, but they can’t make him forget the oath he has sworn to uphold. The cattleman has money, power, and guns on his side, but Kirby Frye is the law in this corner of the Arizona Territories, and he’ll drive a rich man to his knees to prove it.

Buy it here.
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Tuesday, April 15, 2014
Grantland Story about Elmore’s Detroit

Grantland
BY MICHAEL WEINREB

Few cities have as rich a cultural and sporting history as Detroit. From the ’80s Pistons to Bob Seger, Eminem to Miguel Cabrera, the Motor City is a rich tapestry of compelling figures, unbelievable moments, and uniquely American ingenuity.

On April 17, ESPN will premiere 30 for 30: Bad Boys, a documentary about those unforgettable Pistons teams. To celebrate, Grantland will devote an entire week, from April 11 through April 18, to the various stories of this wholly original place.

Read the article.

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Monday, April 14, 2014
The Bounty Hunters - 1953

Where do you start reading Elmore Leonard? At the beginning, of course, THE BOUNTY HUNTERS. The New York Times called it “a first novel and a good one.” The Pasadena Independent wrote: “Leonard is a new writer but already he has moved into company with such Western story greats as James Warner Bellah and Ernest Haycox.”

Buy the trade paperback edition here.
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Saturday, April 12, 2014
How Elmore Leonard and ‘Justified’ Changed Pop Culture

The Motley Fool
Brett Gold

Certain writers leave their mark on pop culture beyond their books, and the late Elmore Leonard was one of those authors. FX (a subsidiary of Fox (NASDAQ: FOXA ) ) just wrapped the fifth and penultimate season of its critically acclaimed drama “Justified,” a series sprung from one of Leonard’s short stories. While that may be the most recent adaptation, it’s not the first.

To look at Elmore Leonard’s impact on the industry you have to go back much further than “Justified.” Leonard was to the crime genre what Tom Clancy was to spy thrillers and Michael Crichton was to science fiction. All three transcended their books because each brought something special to the table ... a certain flair other authors didn’t have.

Read the rest.
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Friday, April 04, 2014
Preview items for sale from Elmore Leonard’s estate

Yousuf Karsh’s photograph of Ernest Hemingway will be up for auction.

The Detroit News

Detroit — Previews begin Friday at DuMouchelle’s in downtown Detroit for the higher-end furniture and artwork from the estate of Elmore Leonard. The beloved “Dickens of Detroit” died in August at 87.

The items range from black and white framed photographs that show the gritty side of city life, so well documented in his books “Get Shorty” and “Rum Punch.” But there is also high-end furniture and art works befitting the neighborhood, and an author who made a comfortable living.

Among the Leonard treasures on the block: A Yousuf Karsh photograph of his literary idol (and brother in minimalist prose), Ernest Hemingway; a Chinese rose medallion porcelain urn, a John Michaels contemporary oil painting, and a William Klein photograph, “Cadillac Man.”

Leonard’s adult children had an estate sale several weeks ago that drew hundreds to his Bloomfield Village house to buy signed books and household goods.

Friday’s preview started at 9:30 a.m. and runs through 5:30 p.m. Items from the Leonard estate go up for sale at noon April 13.

To see more, go to dumouchelles.com

.(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
twitter.com/swhitall

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Wednesday, April 02, 2014
Peter Leonard Discusses His New Novel

Peter joins Murders, Mysteries and Mayhem host Stephen Campbell to discuss his new book, EYES CLOSED TIGHT.

Peter is a second-generation thriller writer and son of the renowned Elmore Leonard. In this interview we discuss Peter’s latest book, his decision to leave a successful career in advertising to pursue life as a novelist, and how the long shadow cast by his legendary father played into that decision.

Peter lives in Birmingham, Michigan, with Julie, his wife of 33 years. The couple have four children.

EYES CLOSED SHUT, is Peter’s sixth novel, and the first since the passing of his father.

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Tuesday, April 01, 2014
Coming Soon: Elmore Leonard - Four Novels of the 1970s

Blending gritty toughness and unpredictable violence with wild humor and an uncanny ear for the rhythms of ordinary speech, Elmore Leonard (1925–2013) was the most widely and enthusiastically admired crime novelist of his time. His genius for scene and dialogue led Time magazine to describe him as “a Dickens of Detroit,” and Newsweek called him “the best American writer of crime alive, possibly the best we’ve ever had.” Now The Library of America inaugurates a three-volume edition of Leonard’s greatest work, prepared in consultation with the author shortly before his death and edited by his long-time researcher Gregg Sutter.

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Friday, March 28, 2014
Congratulation to Acting Deputy Chief U.S. Marshal Rachel Brooks (Erica Tazel)

I think we are going to be seeing a lot of Rachel in Season 6. Well done, Erica.
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Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Graham Yost Talks About Setting Up The Final Season of Justified

Forbes

Justified is a show (spoiler alert up to Episode 511) that prides itself on its body count, to the point where a guy getting stabbed to death with a pencil is almost an afterthought. That’s just the culture of FX’s underrated Elmore Leonard-inspired drama in which Raylan Givens and friends use suspects as so much target practice.

But Episode 511, which aired last night, was different. We actually cared about the guy who got shot. Raylan’s boss, Art Mullen, took one in the chest in the best episode to date of the show’s penultimate season.

It was a big moment on a great show, and, unlike certain other shows, this unexpected moment wasn’t the end of the episode, but merely the beginning.

Read the Rest.

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Monday, March 24, 2014
Four Novels of the 1970’s (Library of America #255)

Collected for the first time, four funny, street-smart early masterpieces by America’s greatest modern crime writer: Blending gritty toughness and unpredictable violence with wild humor and an uncanny ear for the rhythms of ordinary speech, Elmore Leonard (1925-2013) was the most widely and enthusiastically admired crime novelist of his time.

Pre-Order from Amazon
Pre-Order from Barnes and Noble
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Sunday, March 23, 2014
Timothy Olyphant says Justified’s end is coming at the right time

The New York Daily News
David Hinckley

Timothy Olyphant says it was time to fire himself.

Even though his bosses were dying for him to stay on the job.

As flawed and skilled U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, the pivotal character in FX’s hit Tuesday night series “Justified,” Olyphant is a man FX wanted to keep in the house for as long as possible.

“We love ‘Justified,’ ” says FX President John Landgraf. “We were hopeful we could have found a way to have it continue for seasons six and seven.”

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Tuesday, March 18, 2014
An Evening with Justified Live Webcast

Live Webcast here

You may submit questions for the panel in advance at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).
permalink An Evening with Justified - March 19

Wednesday, March 19, 2014 - 7:30pm PDT
Television Academy
Leonard H. Goldenson Theatre
NoHo Arts District
5220 Lankershim Blvd.
North Hollywood, CA 91601

Based on Elmore Leonard’s novella “Fire in the Hole”, Justified was developed by Graham Yost and stars Timothy Olyphant as Deputy US Marshal Raylan Givens, a lawman who finds himself drawn back to his home state of Kentucky. This time around, Raylan confronts the Crowes, a deadly, lawless family from Florida intent on settling in Harlan with new criminal enterprises in mind. Meanwhile, Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) struggles to free his imprisoned fiancée Ava (Joelle Carter) as he partners with the Dixie Mafia’s Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns).

Justified is produced by Sony Pictures Television and FX Productions.

Panelists

Fred Golan - Executive Producer
Timothy Olyphant - Raylan Givens
Walton Goggins - Boyd Crowder
Nick Searcy - Art Mullen
Joelle Carter - Ava Crowder
Jacob Pitts - Tim Gutterson
Erica Tazel - Rachel Brooks
Jere Burns - Wynn Duffy
Michael Rapaport - Darryl Crowe Jr.

Moderator: Tom O’Neil, founder and head of GoldDerby.com

Admission to this event is complimentary for Television Academy members and one guest (non-transferable). Your membership card and ID are necessary for admittance. Seating is on a first-come, first-served basis with reservation. Admission is not guaranteed. Parking in the Television Academy structure is $4 per vehicle.

You may submit questions for the panel in advance at .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).

This event will be presented as a Live Webcast here at TelevisionAcademy.com.
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Monday, March 17, 2014
Walker Percy Review of Bandits (1987) “There’s a Contra in my Grub”

I’

Walker Percy
January 4, 1987
The New York Times.

THE question here is, Why is Elmore Leonard so good? He is. He is as good as the blurbs say:

‘‘The greatest crime writer of our time, perhaps ever,’’ ‘‘Can’t put it down,’’ and so on. It’s true enough. But how does he do it? Because it looks like he’s thrown away the rules of a noble genre. He doesn’t stick to the same guy or the same place. I had thought Raymond Chandler wrote the book when he set down Philip Marlowe in Los Angeles, in his lonesome house up Laurel Canyon, stoic and pure-hearted amid the low life of Sunset Boulevard and the bad cops of Bay City, a tough Galahad pitted against some very sleazy barbarians.

But look at what Mr. Leonard is doing. Here he is now in New Orleans. I haven’t read many of his books, but, as I recall, he’s taken on Detroit, Miami Beach, Bal Harbour, Jerusalem, with a different cop or a different tough guy in each place. His New Orleans is done up with meticulous accuracy. The restaurants, streets, bars, hotels are just right - especially a lovely neighborhood restaurant, Mandina’s, which tourists have never heard of, and even the funeral home across the street. One imagines Mr. Leonard moving into a city for a couple of weeks, yet doing his research as exhaustively as John Gunther doing another ‘‘Inside’’ book. Yet Mr. Leonard’s New Orleans lacks the authenticity of Chandler’s L.A., which works for Marlowe - and for us - as his very soul’s terrain.

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Sunday, March 16, 2014
The Writer’s Institute at 25

Doug Moe
Wisconsin Journal

The first year, when Elmore Leonard came, someone asked the secret to good writing.
“Leave out the boring parts,” the celebrated crime novelist said.

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Sunday, March 02, 2014
Elmore Gets a Shout Out at the Oscars.

Elmore’‘s at the 1:32 mark. They list him as the writer of Joe Kidd. It should have been Mr. Majestyk in honor of Walter Mirisch, his producer and friend.


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Saturday, January 25, 2014
Timothy Olyphant, ‘Justified’ Cast Pay Tribute to Elmore Leonard

ELMORE LEONARD TRIBUTE PANEL—1/21/14—Pictured: (L-R) Jacob Pitts, Jere Burns, Michael Shamberg, Erica Tazel, Walton Goggins, Andrea Grossman, Gregg Sutter, Peter Leonard, Timothy Olyphant, Carla Gugino, Graham Yost, Stacey Sher, Joelle Carter. CR: Prashant Gupta/FX copyright 2014 FX Networks

Variety
Alex Stedman

Late author Elmore Leonard was known for his sense of humor, so it only makes sense that a night dedicated to him would be filled with laughter provided by some of the people who keep his work alive.

Castmembers of FX’s “Justified” and others gathered at the New Roads School in Santa Monica Jan. 21 to read excerpts and pay tribute to the novelist/screenwriter, who died in August of last year.

Nonprofit literature organization Writers Bloc presented the evening with help from Leonard’s researcher, Gregg Sutter. The org’s founder, Andrea Grossman, served as host and explained how the event came to be.

“When Elmore died this past summer, I was stricken,” she said. “I loved that guy. My 20-year-old daughter told me to get a grip, stop whining, call Gregg Sutter and plan a tribute.”

She also acknowledged that many of the people present were missing something else: the third episode of the new season of “Justified” which aired that night. “Thank God for DVRs,” she jested.

Before handing the microphone off, she let the man of the hour have the stage, showing a video of Leonard accepting his National Book Awards Medal for distinguished contribution to American letters.

“The review I think has the most stimulating, if not a realistic, appraisal of my work comes from New Music Express in London who calls me ‘the poet laureate of wild assholes with revolvers,’” he read, and paused for the audience to laugh. “You hope in vain you see a quote like that on the back cover on your book.”

“Justified” showrunner Graham Yost fittingly read a passage from the short story that inspired the series.

“When I was adapting that story, ‘Fire in the Hole’ – it’s 55 pages in this book – what I did a lot of the time, if I was typing the scene, I’d think, ‘What’s Raylan going to say next?’” He recalled after reading the excerpt. “Hell, what would Elmore have him say next? Let’s use that.”

“That’s the reason we’ve been on for five years,” he continued. “We try to do an Elmore Leonard show, week in, week out.”

Elmore’s son Peter Leonard also shared what the author was like at home.

“In the ’60s, when everyone in Detroit was driving a big American car, Elmore bought a Fiat convertible that he sometimes drove on the sidewalk to the bewilderment of our neighbors,” he laughed. “I think alcohol might have been involved.”

He also read some favorite letters his dad received: one from a convict, one from a 12-year-old girl and one from someone who vehemently hated his work, which left the audience cracking up.

Walton Goggins, who plays the infamous Boyd Crowder on “Justified,” was tasked with reading one of Leonard’s most intense works: “Pagan Babies.” Before he did, he marveled at the role that Leonard left behind for him.

“If you would have told me five years ago that I would get the opportunity to play a criminal called Boyd Crowder written by Elmore Leonard, I would have said, ‘What is it you’ve been smoking?’” he said. “And if you would have told me five years ago that five years later I’d still be playing Boyd Crowder, I would have said, ‘What is it that you’ve been smoking and can I have some?’”

“Justified” stars Timothy Olyphant, Erica Tazel and Jere Burns also read some of Leonard works, as did “Karen Sisco” star Carla Gugino and “Get Shorty” producers Stacey Sher and Michael Shamberg.
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Thursday, January 09, 2014
Timothy Olyphant would be ‘James Bong’

Elmore would have loved this.

“The last guy drank Heineken, it used to be martinis and bow ties, now he’s drinking beers and I think the natural progression is… you know. Bong. James Bong!”

Read more: http://www.upi.com/blog/2014/01/09/Timothy-Olyphant-would-be-James-Bong/3361389269224/#ixzz2pw6asPlp

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Wednesday, January 08, 2014
Justified Season 5 Episode 1 Roundup: A Murder of Crowes

HitFix

Webster Post

AVClub

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Tuesday, January 07, 2014
Justified Tonight!

‘Justified’ returns with Southern belles who can raise some hell: Erica Tazel, Joelle Carter and Amy Smart
Timothy Olyphant’s FX series is back for its fifth season on Tuesday in a Kentucky where women are at least as tough as the men

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/tv-movies/justified-returns-women-high-caliber-article-1.1567998#ixzz2pj4Oi4gf
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Saturday, January 04, 2014
As ‘Justified’ returns to FX, its star and creator fondly recall Elmore Leonard

By Julie Hinds
Detroit Free Press Staff Writer

When Timothy Olyphant first met Elmore Leonard on the set of “Justified,” the man who plays Raylan Givens instantly liked the straight-talking, calls-it-like-he-sees-it vibe of the man who created Raylan Givens.

“He was just as cool as they come,” says the star of the FX series, which will launch its fifth season Tuesday night. “Pretty early on, he told me not to be afraid to lose the hat. He said, ‘You know, maybe a gust of wind just comes along and you never see it again.’ I thought that was fantastic.”

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Monday, December 30, 2013
Byliner Publishes Two Unpublished Elmore Leonard Stories

THE TRESPASSERS

Told from the perspective of a young wife who’s become increasingly frustrated with her mild-mannered husband, “The Trespassers” begins as a quiet domestic drama and quickly escalates into a nightmare. When Evan refuses to confront men who are illegally hunting on the couple’s remote homestead, Chris takes matters into her own hands, with terrifying results.

Available at Byliner:
http://byl.nr/19x9RW6

Also available for $1.99 at:

Amazon:
http://byl.nr/1cQq74Y

BN:
http://byl.nr/1cQrCQH

iBooks:
http://byl.nr/1cCvcMA

Kobo:
http://byl.nr/1ggEKgZ

CONFESSION

Set in a dusty Arizona town when Apaches still roamed the land, “Confession” tells the tale of Father Schwinn, a gentle but imposing priest who smokes cigars, swills whiskey, and feels right at home with the rough cowboys and stagecoach drivers who hang out at the local saloon. When two saddlebags filled with cash mysteriously appear on the steps of Father Schwinn’s church, he finds himself caught up in a crime that puts his vows of nonviolence to the test.

Amazon:
http://byl.nr/1fW4azC

BN:
http://byl.nr/1cQrwIR

iTunes:
http://byl.nr/1eR2OtB

Kobo:
http://byl.nr/1ltZEJN

permalink Before the crime thrillers, there were westerns.

The New York Times.
By Charles McGrath

Elmore Leonard’s first love was not the crime thriller but the western. In the ’50s and ’60s, when the going rate was about 2 cents a word, he tirelessly banged out western short stories for pulp magazines like Argosy, Dime Western and Western Story Roundup. He was a copywriter then for Campbell Ewald in Detroit — the big Chevy ad agency, with offices right in the G.M. building — and it was generally understood there that Dutch, as Leonard was called, came in early to work on his westerns, and no one was supposed to bother him.

A photograph from the period shows not the scraggly, grizzled figure we later came to know from the book jackets, but a Don Draper type: handsome, clean-shaven, wearing black-framed glasses and smoking a cigarette while sitting at his typewriter. On the wall behind him, though, is a clue that transmissions and floor shifters were not the only thing on his mind. There is a Georgia O’Keeffe-looking cow’s skull, a rifle and a couple of six-shooters.

Read the rest.
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Monday, December 23, 2013
The Atlantic: The Elmore Leonard Paradox

The Atlantic

Christopher Orr

When Elmore Leonard died in August at age 87, he left behind more than 40 novels, a number of short stories, and one ongoing television show, Justified, which begins its fifth season in January. By most appraisals, he had long since dethroned Raymond Chandler as the greatest of American crime writers. Many critics argued that, if anything, the reference to genre slighted his contributions. Martin Amis described him as “a literary genius,” and “the nearest America has to a national writer.”

Read the rest.

permalink ‘Justified’ Season 5 pics: Raylan in the Everglades, plus a first look at the Crowes

Zap2it

FX has released the first photos from the Season 5 premiere of “Justified,” which takes Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens back to his former home in Florida.
permalink New Justified Trailer - Bad Ass!


permalink Actress ARRIANE ALEXANDER To Join FX Drama “JUSTIFIED”

News International

Los Angeles, CA (December 20, 2013) – Actress ARRIANE ALEXANDER joins the celebrated gritty FX drama series, “JUSTIFIED,” in a recurring role beginning with the Season 5 premiere on January 7th, 2014.
Developed by Graham Yost and starring Timothy Olyphant, “Justified” is based on the works of crime novelist Elmore Leonard, including Leonard’s short story “Fire in the Hole.”
The new season kicks off with the episode titled “A Murder of Crowes,” which finds the show’s resident bad-ass female, Ava Crowder (Joelle Carter) locked up behind bars for a murder she’d committed (and successfully hidden) some time ago. Alexander steps in as Officer Susan Crane, a burly, tough guard at Harlan County Jail, who is part of the challenging situation Ava and husband Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) must come to grips with as she spends time incarcerated.
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Elmore Leonard remembered by Peter Leonard

The Guardian

Peter Leonard

We lost a good one. I remember when I was nine years old, going down the stairs to the basement to watch my father write. He sat at a small red desk in a cinder block room painted white. He wrote longhand on unlined yellow paper. His typewriter was on a metal stand next to the desk. Across the room was a red wicker waste basket that had half a dozen balls of crumpled yellow paper on the floor around it, scenes that didn’t work, shots that didn’t make it. In retrospect it looked like a prison cell, but my father didn’t seem conscious of his surroundings, or of me standing at the bottom of the stairs; he was deep in concentration, midway through a western called Hombre that would be made into a movie starring Paul Newman.

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Saturday, December 07, 2013
VIDEO: Two Justified Season 5 Teasers





Justified returns in one month, on January 7.
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Monday, November 18, 2013
When Elmore Leonard’s Fiction Met a Real-Life Rock Band

Spin Magazine
August 20, 2013

Elmore Leonard, who died at 87 after recently suffering a stroke, is best remembered for crime novels such as Get Shorty, but there was a part of him that wanted to be a rock star. The protagonist of Leonard’s 1999 book Be Cool, a sequel to Get Shorty, was trying to get into music management. While researching the story, the author hung out with the members of Aerosmith and listened to the likes of Gwen Stefani and Alanis Morissette, according to his publisher. But the band that changed his character’s life turned out be a three-piece called the Stone Coyotes who happened to be playing one night at Los Angeles venue the Troubadour.

Leonard, who described the Stone Coyotes as “AC/DC meets Patsy Cline,” incorporated lyrics from their actual album Church of the Falling Rain into Be Cool. He even asked the group to write the song “Odessa” for his character Linda Moon, who came from Texas. The band appeared with him on the book’s promotional tour, including a stop at New York City music venue Mercury Lounge. When Be Cool first went on sale, it came with a CD that featured the Stone Coyotes’ songs.

The Stone Coyotes now live in western Massachusetts. In a Facebook post earlier today, they announced that they’ll “fly our flag at half mast” for Leonard. “He was the real thing and above all a straight shooter,” they wrote. “May we all rock so well into our golden years.” The Stone Coyotes had never played in Texas when Leonard asked them to write “Odessa,” but they now visit often. As lead singer and guitarist Barbara Keith recalled to the Springfield, Massachussetts Republican, “We told him, ‘Now we’re living out your book.’”

Around the time Be Cool came out, Leonard told the New York Times he’d like to be a rock star for roughly 48 hours. “I’d want to do two concerts,” he said. “I can’t sing, so I’d be [Aerosmith guitarist] Joe Perry. What fascinates me is the crowd reaction.”

Check out “Church of the Falling Rain” and a live take on “Odessa” here..
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Thursday, November 07, 2013
Tim Youd’s Performance Exhibition of Elmore Leonard’s GET SHORTY Set for Art Week Miami, 12/4-8

New York, Los Angeles, Indianapolis, Santa Ana and now Miami; Artist Tim Youd continues his ongoing series of durational performances with his re-typing of Elmore Leonard’s crime fiction classic Get Shorty as part of his literary performance art exhibition at the Coagula Curatorial Gallery room 218 (second floor) at the Aqua Art Fair during Art Week Miami, December 4th - 8th, 2013, located at 1530 Collins Ave Miami, FL 33139.

Artist Tim Youd performs the re-typing of entire novels on a single piece of paper, utilizing the same make and model typewriter used by the original author. In his process, Youd covers a piece of paper with a top sheet, so that the underlying page receives the indentation from the keys but not the ink, except where the typewriter keys break through the top sheet. The result is a highly formal yet very surprising diptych - the top sheet densely covered in ink, mirrored against a heavily indented but mostly un-inked page

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permalink Uptown Film Festival set to honor Elmore Leonard

On Saturday, Peter Leonard will be attending the Uptown Film Festival to accept the 2013 Michigan Filmmaker Lifetime Achievement Award on his father’s behalf. The three-day festival kicks off Thursday in downtown Birmingham and Elmore Leonard, who passed away in August, is the inaugural recipient of the award.

Read more.

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Wednesday, November 06, 2013
Justified Returns for Season 5 on Tuesday, January 7 at 10PM

This season, Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens (Timothy Olyphant) confronts the Crowes, a deadly, lawless family from Florida intent on settling in Harlan with new criminal enterprises in mind. Meanwhile, Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) struggles to free his imprisoned fiancée Ava (Joelle Carter) as he partners with the Dixie Mafia’s Wynn Duffy (Jere Burns). The series stars Emmy Award nominated Timothy Olyphant as Deputy U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens. Series co-stars are Emmy Award nominated Walton Goggins, Nick Searcy, Joelle Carter, Jacob Pitts, Erica Tazel, and Jere Burns. Based on the late Elmore Leonard’s novella “Fire in the Hole,”
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Friday, October 25, 2013
The Last Four Elmore Leonard Trade Paperbacks - Coming in December

Sad but wonderful. Buy them all at the Elmore Leonard bookstore.
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Friday, October 11, 2013
Happy Birthday, Dutch

We miss you, man.

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Friday, October 04, 2013
Tour of Elmore’s House with Peter, Jane and Katy

BLOOMFIELD HILLS, Mich. -

When novelist Elmore Leonard passed away on Aug. 20, the world lost a great writer and a creator of some very interesting characters.

Local 4’s cameras were recently allowed inside Leonard’s home where he wrote 19 novels—the place of his inspiration.

Leonard’s 5-bedroom house is listed for $2.1 million in Bloomfield Hills. His son, Peter Leonard, remembers running by the house back in 1985.

More.
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Saturday, September 28, 2013
Justified Exclusive: Michael Rapaport Joins Season 5 Cast… as the New Big Bad?

TVLINE
Michael Ausiello

CBS’ loss is FX’s gain.
Michael Rapaport, who was cut from the Eye net’s new fall sitcom The Millers, has rebounded with a major recurring role in Season 5 of Justified, TVLine has learned exclusively.

Rapaport will play Dale Crowe, Jr., the sexy and charismatic patriarch of a white-trash Florida crime family. Dale’s an ex-convict who owns a gator farm; he is smart, savvy and ruthless, all in the name of family.
The Crowes will likely draw comparisons to Season 2′s Bennett clan, led by matriarch Mags (played, coincidentally, by Rapaport’s ex-Miller‘s co-star Margo Martindale).

It’s not clear if Dale bears any relation to Boyd’s IQ-challenged chum Dewey Crowe. UPDATE: As one Justified-obsessed TVLine reader points out below, Dewy has previously spoken of having a relative named Dale — case closed!)
Rapaport’s credits include Boston Public, My Name is Earl, Prison Break, and, most recently, Fox’s ill-fated The Mob Doctor.
Justified‘s fifth season is slated to premiere in early 2014.
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Friday, September 27, 2013
Levin floor statement in memory of Elmore Leonard

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

Mr. President, when Michigan novelist Elmore Leonard passed away on August 20, the world lost an irreplaceable voice, a witty creator of unlikely and unforgettable characters who, like their creator, knew the value of brevity.

Leonard’s novels took place in the American West, in the Everglades, in the Horn of Africa or the streets of Havana, but they always carried a little of his hometown, Detroit. His protagonists, like his hometown, were tough and gruff, but loveable and good-hearted, people of few words but bold actions. And like his hometown, Leonard’s writing was without pretense or formality. “If it sounds like writing,” he said, “I rewrote it.”

The New York Times accurately described Leonard as “A Man of Few, Yet Perfect, Words.” In 2001, he wrote for The Times a short essay on his tips for writers, titled, “Easy on the Adverbs, Exclamation Points and Especially Hooptedoodle.” Their aim, he said, was to “remain invisible when I’m writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what’s taking place in the story.” His rules for writing are useful for all of us who write and want to be read, and I ask unanimous consent that they be placed in the record. The world has lost a great writer. I have lost a friend.

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Friday, September 20, 2013
FX’s ‘Justified’ Season 5: Jere Burns promoted to series regular for new season

examiner.com

Hector Cruz

FX’s Justified” has promoted Jere Burns to a series regular ahead of Season 5, Deadline first reported Wednesday (Sept. 18).

The 58-year-old actor has recurred as the ruthless loan collector and Dixie Mafia middleman Wynn Duffy since the drama’s first season, appearing in a total of 20 episodes. The move comes after the character offered a partnership to Boyd Crowder (Walton Goggins) in the Season 4 finale.

Burns’ recent TV roles include “Bates Motel,” “Breaking Bad” and “Burn Notice.”

The new season of “Justified” will once again find Timothy Olyphant’s Raylan facing off against another crime family like he did in Season 2 with the Bennett clan, which was led by Margo Martindale’s Mags. However, this time around, the central figure is a man—the charismatic and ruthless Dale.

The upcoming fifth season will also include a tribute to the late Elmore Leonard, who wrote the books that the series is based on.

“We’ll do something for the Season 4 DVD set, and I’m sure we’ll do something on the first episode of the new season,” “Justified” showrunner Graham Yost told Deadline shortly after Leonard passed away last month. Yost and his writers had also plotted to integrate more of Leonard’s character into Season 5.

“Before he had his stroke we were thinking, you know, we’re headed to end of the series, we’ve maybe got two seasons left – so we wanted to bring in the Crowe family which is a big part of his world. We’ve got Dewey Crowe on the show but there are other Crowes that populated his books and we thought it would be fun to focus on that.”

“Justified” will return for Season 5 in January 2014 on FX.
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