Born June 3, 1936, in Wichita Falls, TX; son of William Jefferson (a rancher) and Hazel Ruth McMurtry; married Josephine Ballard, July 15, 1959 (divorced, 1966); children: James Lawrence. Education: North Texas State College (now University), B.A., 1958; Rice University, M.A., 1960; additional study at Stanford University, 1960. Memberships: PEN American Center (president, 1989-91), Texas Institute of Letters. Addresses: Home: Archer City, TX.

• (Author of foreword) Frederick L. Olmsted, Journey Through Texas: or, A Saddle-trip on the Southwestern Frontier, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 1978.
• (Author of foreword) John R. Erickson, Panhandle Cowboy, University of Nebraska Press (Lincoln, NE), 1980.
• (Author of introduction) Dan Flores, Canyon Visions: Photographs and Pastels of the Texas Plains, Texas Tech University Press (Lubbock, TX), 1989.
• (Author of introduction) Donna A. Demac, Liberty Denied: The Current Rise of Censorship in America, Rutgers University Press (New Brunswick, NJ), 1990.
• (Author of foreword) Clarus Backes, editor, Growing Up Western, Knopf (New York, NY), 1990.
• Crazy Horse (biography), Viking (New York, NY), 1999.
• Walter Benjamin at the Dairy Queen: Reflections at Sixty and Beyond (memoir), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1999.
• (Editor) Still Wild: Short Fiction of the American West, 1950 to the Present, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.
• Roads: Driving America's Great Highways (memoir), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.
• Boone's Lick (stories), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2000.
• Paradise (memoir), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2001.
• (Editor, with Don Graham) Lone Star Literature: A Texas Anthology, W.W. Norton & Co. (New York, NY), 2003.
• Oh What a Slaughter: Massacres in the American West, 1846-1890, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2005.
• The Colonel and Little Missie: Buffalo Bill, Annie Oakley, and the Beginnings of Superstardom in America, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2005.
• (With Annie Proulx and Diana Ossana) Brokeback Mountain: Story to Screenplay, Scribner (New York, NY), 2006.
• Missouri River, National Geographic Society (Washington, DC), 2006.
• (Author of foreword) Bill Wittliff, A Book of Photographs from Lonesome Dove, University of Texas Press (Austin, TX), 2007.
• Books: A Memoir, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2008.
• Literary Life: A Second Memoir, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2009.
• Writers: A Memoir, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2009.

• Horseman, Pass By, Harper (New York, NY), 1961, Texas A&M University Press (College Station, TX), 1988, published as Hud, Popular Library (New York, NY), 1961.
• Leaving Cheyenne, Harper (New York, NY), 1963, Texas A&M University Press (College Station, TX), 1986.
• Moving On, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1970, Pocket Books (New York, NY), 1988.
• All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1972, published with a preface by the author and afterword by Raymond L. Neinstein, Scribner Paperback Fiction (New York, NY), 2002.
• Terms of Endearment, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1975, reprinted with new preface, Scribner (New York, NY), 1999.
• Somebody's Darling, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1978.
• Cadillac Jack, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1982.
• The Desert Rose, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1983.
• Anything for Billy, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1988.
• Some Can Whistle (sequel to All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1989.
• Buffalo Girls, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1990.
• The Evening Star (sequel to Terms of Endearment), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1992.
• (With Diana Ossana) Pretty Boy Floyd, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1994.
• Three Bestselling Novels (contains Lonesome Dove, Leaving Cheyenne, and The Last Picture Show) Wings Books (New York, NY), 1994.
• The Late Child (sequel to Desert Rose), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1995.
• (With Diana Ossana) Zeke and Ned, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1997.
• Loop Group, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2005.
• Telegraph Days, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2006.

• The Last Picture Show (also see below), Dial (New York, NY), 1966, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1989.
• Texasville (also see below), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1987.
• Duane's Depressed, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1999.
• When the Light Goes, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2007.
• Rhino Ranch, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2009.

• Lonesome Dove, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1985, reprinted, 2000.
• Streets of Laredo, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1993.
• Dead Man's Walk (prequel), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1995.
• Comanche Moon (prequel), Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1997.

• Sin Killer, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2002.
• The Wandering Hill, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.
• By Sorrow's River, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2003.
• Folly and Glory, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 2004.

• In a Narrow Grave: Essays on Texas, Encino Press (Austin, TX), 1968, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1989.
• It's Always We Rambled: An Essay on Rodeo, Frank Hallman (New York, NY), 1974.
• Film Flam: Essays on Hollywood, Simon & Schuster (New York, NY), 1987.
• Sacagewea's Nickname: Essays on the American West, New York Review of Books (New York, NY), 2001.

• (With Peter Bogdanovich) The Last Picture Show (screenplay; based on McMurtry's novel of same title), B.B.S. Productions, 1970.
• Montana (teleplay), Turner Network Television, 1990.
• Falling from Grace (screenplay), Columbia, 1992.
• (With Cybill Shepherd) Memphis (teleplay; based on a novel by Shelby Foote), Turner Home Entertainment, 1992.
• (With Diana Ossana) Streets of Laredo (teleplay; based on McMurtry's novel of the same title), CBS, 1995.
• (With Diana Ossana) Dead Man's Walk (teleplay; based on McMurtry's novel of the same title), ABC, 1996.
• (With Diana Ossana) Johnson County War (teleplay; based on the novel Riders of Judgement by Frederick Manfred), Hallmark Channel, 2002.
• (With Diana Ossana) Brokeback Mountain (based on the short story by Annie Proulx), Focus Features, 2005.

Also contributor to Texas in Transition, Lyndon Baines Johnson School of Public Affairs, 1986, and Rodeo: No Guts No Glory, Aperture (New York, NY), 1994. Contributor of numerous articles, essays, and book reviews for magazines and newspapers, including Atlantic Monthly, Gentleman's Quarterly, New York Times, Saturday Review, and Washington Post. Contributing editor of American Film, 1975--.