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Larry McMurtry's first announced memoir, entitled "Books: A Memoir" (ISBN-13 9781416583349) will be released for sale on July 8, 2008. McMurtry describes the publication as "A book about my life with books", which is a fitting title indeed. Most McMurtry readers, collectors and fans alike are familiar with the author's literary life through his best known works of fiction- such as ”Lonesome Dove", "Terms of Endearment", "The Last Picture Show" and "Streets of Laredo"---and the fact that he won a Pulitzer Prize for "Lonesome Dove".  At the same time, some of his readers (and to some extent a few book collectors and book critics), know very little about his life as first a young book scout and ultimately as a first rate collector and keeper of fine, rare, and scarce books.    

McMurtry's interest in books first started in 1942- when his cousin, off to enlist in the army at the beginning of WWII, gave McMurtry 19 adventure books to read. Although only 6 years old, those books, even at that young age, made such an impression on the future Pulitzer Prize winning author that it started a lifelong collecting and reading passion that grew exponentially and eventually would lead to a personal library of more than 30,000 titles. Today, McMurtry's book scouting background and passion for collecting rare or "significant" books has created a small armada of looped together commercial buildings in his hometown of Archer City, Texas--that are the home to his "Booked Up" bookstore and an estimated count of 300,000 plus books. Many book collectors and McMurtry enthusiasts can recount stories of seeing the prolific author sitting at a desk or stool behind the counter at "Booked Up" -busy marking penciled in prices to copies of newly arrived books. To those of us who are collectors and have "the bug", we can only imagine the joy McMurtry must feel while leisurely cataloguing all of those books!

Larry McMurtry's passion for finding and collecting books started after he met some success with the publication of “Horseman Pass By" and "Leaving Cheyenne"--both of which he either wrote or started in graduate school and which became the impetus for acceptance into a writing fellowship grant at Stanford in 1960. It was in the Bay area of San Francisco- under the tutelage of Wallace Stegner and with other future successful authors including Ken Kesey of “Cuckoo's Nest” fame- that McMurtry first acquired the talent (out of reading necessity) to be a successful book scout.  McMurtry explains that in his free time he was always hunting books. "I was reading a lot and buying a lot of books when I realized that I could buy some books and resell the ones I didn't want, make a profit, and then buy more books that I did want". "That's how I got in the book business- as a scheme to finance my reading". In an interview for Stayton Bonner's book, "The Bookman: A Story About Larry McMurtry's Other Day Job", the author explains "Basically, I discovered I could make money doing something I love and have just kept doing it." McMurtry compares his love of book collecting to both an Easter egg hunt and the search for the Holy Grail--"You're looking for the treasure that nobody else has spotted".

It was the talent as a book scout coupled with McMurtry's tremendous curiosity that led him into an insatiable appetite to read (and ultimately write) and the beginnings of "Booked Up" and its many locations. Like a butterfly emerging from constantly bigger and better cocoons, so went the history of McMurtry's bookstore. After accepting a teaching position at Rice University in Houston in 1962, McMurtry found enough free time to work part time at a local bookstore, "The Bookman". It was at this store that he first met his longtime friend and future book business partner Marcia Carter. A few years later (1970) in the Washington D.C. area, while teaching at George Mason College, McMurtry and Clark put together successful bids on multiple lots of fiction, non-fiction and poetry from a long running Capitol area bookstore called "Loudermilks". Although not knowing the names of many of the titles (out of the few thousand they purchased from their bids), McMurtry and Clark used their new found inventory to open up the first version of "Booked Up" in the Georgetown area of our nation's capital in 1970.

The Washington D.C. area proved to be a perfect location for starting a collectable bookstore- McMurtry and Clark entered into the Antiquarian book trade and became successful by buying out book libraries and collections from many different sources--including diplomats, congressmen, socialites, and other fertile book collecting grounds that they could not possibly find elsewhere at that time in Texas, the Bay area, or just about any other geographic region of the United States. McMurtry moved into the world of selling rare finds and collectable books for exorbitant prices up to $100,000--while the books similar to what he first collected as a scout sat on the shelf and collected only dust. "High end book buyers"--similar to their counterparts in the antique and art world---were interested in truly rare books--first print copies from low publishing runs of well known authors (or future literary stars) along with very scarce books--true treasures like Edgar Alan Poe's first printing of "Tamerlane", Whitman's first small print of an oversized "Leaves of Grass" from 1855. 

In 1988, a full 18 years and many successful personal book publications later, McMurtry opened up another "Booked Up" store in his hometown of Archer City, Texas--which today can boast as being the single largest used bookstore in the United States--with well over 300,000 titles and expansion into 3 more nearby commercial buildings. Although Archer City will never be considered the Antiquarian book capital of the world and the days of dealing in truly scarce books may have passed because of the emergence of Auctions and auctions houses--the author can often be found sitting somewhere in a chair at "Booked Up" in Archer City--making pencil notations for prices on the front endpapers of a never ending stack of books. McMurtry considers the collecting and the continued expansion of the "Booked Up" collection as one of the most important accomplishments of his life---perhaps even more important than his novels and additional works of non-fiction being published-- or the winning of the Pulitzer Prize in 1986--or even his screenplay adaptations into film of his novels along with his partner, Diana Ossana--or the winning of The Oscar for their adaptation of "Brokeback Mountain" along with Annie Proulx.  Proof positive for this can be seen by this new release “Books”- of a 2008 publication--which is a history of his life with books--not his books--but books in total and what they mean to him.

McMurtry details in "Books: A Memoir"--how it is because of rising land values and rent costs that most of the larger bookstores with massive collections have disappeared altogether. It is only the relatively low cost of land that has kept "Booked Up" in existence in Archer City--and even that was not guaranteed as little as a couple years ago when the author considered shutting down the operation altogether. The 18 years between the start up of his partnership with Clark and Washington D.C. is a large, although important, topic when discussing the life and importance of Larry McMurtry to the book collecting scene. There were many important factors that led to the eventual move of the bookstore back to Texas and away from the nation's capital, but the main issue cited by McMurtry himself was the loss of his will to compete in the competitive world of Washington D.C., with all of its "elite echelons-journalistic, legal, bureaucratic, and social". One of the main reasons for this loss in edge was McMurtry's battle with heart disease, which in 1991 led to bypass surgery and post operative depression--and an eventual literary self imposed layoff for about a year. McMurtry cites that even his love of reading was put on hold—which also meant his love for writing was bound to suffer. All of this eventually would take a toll on the day to day business operations and his partnership with Carter.

McMurtry, whose personality and demeanor have been described in many different ways by book collectors and dedicated readers alike, is in no doubt, a study in contradictions. He is famously a little cranky, somewhat argumentative and contentious---but through his novels he has created some of the most memorable and beloved fictional characters in American literature. Indeed, readers are on a first name basis with "Duane", "Call", and "Augustus"---as well as protagonists like "Blue Duck". Where else in American literature can you find a more fearsome "Bad Guy" than "Blue Duck"?   

It is well known that McMurtry has an aversion to putting his signature on any of his own books for collectors--and yet as a former book scout he is certainly well aware of how important the author's signature is to the value of a book. Perhaps it is his own personal statement that the value lies in the contents and condition of the book itself and that the importance of the signature has become clouded with suspicion- brought on mostly by the prevalence of the internet and EBay. McMurtry himself has stated that he just got tired of fans coming into “Booked Up” to have their personal copy of “Lonesome Dove” signed. The author has even stopped selling his own books through “Booked Up”—preferring to do it through another local bookstore owned by friends, “Three Dog Books”.

For collectors of McMurtry books- a continuing challenge is identifying and validating the many changes and revisions to the author's personal signature- which has drastically changed over the years from a full or almost full version to his more current "scribble scrawl" of the "L" and the "ty" fused together. Indeed, there have been so many changes and revisions to his signature over time that it is now very difficult to ascertain what is authentic and what is not. To guarantee an accurate and true McMurtry signature, the dealer has to be either very expertise to identify signature changes or have direct knowledge and authentication of the source---and probably both. The only really true way of knowing is to deal only in signed and limited (numbered) editions--of which McMurtry only does about 100 for each new publication.

In terms of value, the McMurtry titles with the most values are some of his very early works, including "Horseman Pass By" from 1961- Harper & Brothers (his first Novel which became a Paul Newman feature film known as "Hud"), "In A Narrow Grave" from 1968-The Encino Press---a collection of Texas essays (where perhaps only a handful of the first print copies remain (some say 20-50 because the author pulled the book after finding many mistakes), and the first printing of "Lonesome Dove" in fine/fine condition without the usual spine roll--which occurs because of the overall thickness of the book. Of course, these titles in first print and fabulous condition bring a handsome price--but with the McMurtry signature and especially the early McMurtry signature--the value goes up exponentially. On the other end of the spectrum-- from these early titles and their obvious values-- it should be said that many of his newest publications also have value (with signatures) simply because McMurtry does not attend book signings or sign copies for customers who happen to run into the elusive author at "Booked Up". Indeed, the only author signature for the newest publications, including "When The Light Goes" (2006 Simon & Schuster) and "Books:-A Memoir" (2008 Simon & Schuster) -- come through a strict limited release out of Archer City. 

Larry McMurtry does not have a good feeling about the future of bookstores and the collecting of books in general. He has said that very few of his customers at “Booked Up” are under 40 years of age and that because many younger people do not read as much or get their information off of the printed word—the future with bookstores is clouded. Today stores combine books with music, coffee, and access to the internet to attract younger customers—who use the shopping experience for social reasons—and very few purchase collectable books. Just another reason, besides a slowing economy, for booksellers to consider changes and alternatives to a once rewarding way of life.