Elmore Leonard Biography
Elmore Leonard became interested in writing in 1935, after reading a serialization of All Quiet on the
Western Front in the Detroit Times. Touched by the story, he
wrote a play based on the novel for his fifth-grade classroom, using the
desks as "No-Man's-Land." In high school he wrote a story or two for the
school paper but spent most of his time reading. After graduating in
1943 Leonard joined the navy and served with a Seabee unit in the South
Pacific. He left the service in 1946 and enrolled at the University of
Detroit. At the university he began writing again, entering short story
contests and placing third in one of them. He graduated in 1950 with a
major in English and philosophy.
In 1949, while still in college, Leonard joined the Campbell-Ewald
advertising agency. He also began writing in earnest during this period.
He had his first success in 1951 when Argosy magazine published
his short story "Trail of the Apache." Other stories—all
westerns—followed in such publications as Zane Grey Western and
The Saturday Evening Post. In 1953 Leonard published his first
novel, The Bounty Hunters, followed by four more over the next
eight years. Between 1951 and 1961 he published 30 short stories, five
novels, and made two sales to the movies. When his novel Hombre
was chosen as one of the best westerns of all time by the Western
Writers of America in 1961, Leonard finally felt confident enough to
quit the advertising agency and devote all of his time to writing.
As the market for westerns began to dry up, however, Leonard found
himself writing educational films for Encyclopaedia Britannica,
industrial films for corporations and advertising and sales material. He
switched from westerns to crime with the publication of The Big
Bounce. During the 1970s and 1980s he developed a devoted following
with his novels Fifty-two Pickup, City Primeval, Stick
and LaBrava. When Glitz was published in 1985, it became
Leonard's "breakout" bestseller; he began to receive long-overdue
attention, including a Newsweek cover story. Each of his novels
since then—Bandits, Touch, Freaky Deaky,
Killshot, Get Shorty, Maximum Bob, Rum Punch,
Pronto, Riding the Rap, Out of Sight and Cuba
Libre —has been a national bestseller as well as a critical success.
Three of Leonard's books have been nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe
Award by the Mystery Writers of America: The Switch, nominated
for Best Original Paperback Novel of 1978; Split Images, for Best
Novel of 1981; and LaBrava, which won for Best Novel in 1983.
Maximum Bob was also awarded the first annual International
Association of Crime Writers' North American Hammett Prize in 1991. In
1992 the Mystery Writers gave Leonard the Grand Master Award, which "is
presented only to individuals who, by a lifetime of achievement, have
proved themselves preeminent in the craft of the mystery and dedicated
to the advancement of the genre."
Success has followed Leonard to Hollywood as well. Released in
October 1995, "Get Shorty," starred John Travolta and was an immediate
critical and commercial success; the same is true of "Out of Sight,"
which starred George Clooney and was released in June 1998.
Award-winning director Quentin Tarantino ("Pulp Fiction") directed
"Jackie Brown," a film based on Leonard’s novel Rum Punch, in
December 1997. Tarantino also plans to bring three more Leonard novels
to the silver screen: Bandits, Freaky Deaky and
Killshot. Leonard's 34th novel, Cuba Libre, is a story of
high adventure, history, romance and nefarious undertakings in Cuba. The
film rights to the novel, which was released in February 1998, were
bought by Joel and Ethan Coen of "Fargo" fame. "Maximum Bob" was an
ABC-TV miniseries starring Beau Bridges.
In September 1998, Dell published The Tonto Woman and Other
Western Stories and also issued a trade paperback trilogy of
Elmore Leonard’s Western Roundups (#1, #2, #3), one each month, from
October through December 1998. Delacorte Press will publish Be Cool,
the follow-up to Get Shorty, in February 1999.
A full-length biography, Elmore Leonard, by David Geherin, was
published by Continuum as part of their Literature and Life series.
Leonard was also the subject of an hour-long documentary produced in
1991 by the BBC, entitled "Elmore Leonard's Criminal Record"; the
documentary has aired in the United States on The Learning Channel.
Elmore Leonard is the father of five children and the grandfather of
nine. He and his wife live in a suburb of Detroit, Michigan.
This biography was last updated on 08/07/2010.
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