We lost a great one yesterday. Following a stroke back in July, Elmore “Dutch” Leonard died yesterday. I never got around to reading as much of him as I felt I should, but when I did, I knew I was reading something different, the kind of thing others aspired to. As good as his fiction is, his 10 Rules of Writing is good as gold. I have no idea how many times I’ve read it.
The guy was just cool. His prose, his characters, his dialogue . . . it all just exuded cool. Lemme run a few names by you, if you don’t know what I’m talking about:
- Jack Foley
- Harry Zimm
- Jackie Brown
- Karen Sisco
- Chili Palmer
- Raylan Givens
His fellow writers are better suited to talk about him:
- Michael Connelly’s facebook page‘s entry following the news.
- The LA Times ran this: Writers pay tribute
- Naturally, Lee Goldberg was great
- I loved Robert Crais remembers ‘Dutch’
- Chris Talbott’s piece was probably the best I read yesterday. The closing quotation from Ace Atkins sums up everything anyone could say best:
At 87, he remained the coolest and hippest of all American writers. His work never got old or dated. He wrote about cops, cowboys, and criminals but to define him as anything else but a great American novelist doesn’t do him justice. His comic touches, effortless style and social commentary were unmatched.
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