Known as the "Dickens of Detroit" and hailed as America's greatest living crime novelist, legendary Elmore Leonard has written more than 40 books during his 60-plus-year writing career, including the New York Times best-sellers Djibouti, Road Dogs, Up in Honey's Room, The Hot Kid, Mr. Paradise, Tishomingo Blues, and the critically acclaimed collection of short stories, When the Women Come Out to Dance. In 2009, he was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award from PEN USA as a tribute to his accomplishments and contributions to the world of literature, and he is the recipient of the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America. In 2008, he was awarded the prestigious F. Scott Fitzgerald Award at Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland. Many of his books have been made into movies, including Get Shorty, Out of Sight, and Be Cool. His latest novel, Raylan (William Morrow), features U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens, hero of the hit FX series Justified. The show is based on Leonard's novels (Riding the Rap, Pronto, Fire in the Hole, and now Raylan). In June 2011, Justified won a prestigious Peabody Award for excellence in electronic media.
Leonard is available for speaking engagements with another Leonard and another novelist, his son, Peter. The two of them have taken the Leonard act on the road, giving talks they call "The Family Business". They are ideal headliner and keynote speakers for book festivals, libraries, colleges, and at select corporate functions.
Their events are the rare opportunity to interact with the grandmaster of crime writing and the literal "heir apparent". In their spirited, spontaneous, and entertaining events they cover everything from Elmore's famous "Ten Rules of Writing," how they "audition characters", fascinating crime research with the Detroit Police Homicide, ideas and inspiration, writers who have influenced them, and the process of writing, to Hollywood stories about such luminaries as George Clooney, John Travolta, Clint Eastwood, Steve McQueen, Burt Reynolds, and Charles Bronson.
Leonard - or "Dutch," as he is sometimes called - was born in New Orleans, LA but because his father worked as a site locator for General Motors, the family moved frequently for several years. In 1934, the family finally settled in Detroit, Michigan. Leonard has made the Detroit area his home ever since.
In the 1930s, two major events occurred that would influence many of Leonard's works. Gangsters such as Bonnie and Clyde were making national headlines, as were the Detroit Tigers baseball team. From about 1931 to 1934, Bonnie and Clyde were on a rampage; they were killed in May, 1934. The Tigers made it to the World Series in 1934. Leonard turned these events into lifelong fascinations with both sports and guns.
Leonard graduated from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School in 1943 and immediately joined the Navy, where he served with the Seabees for three years in the south Pacific. In 1946 he enrolled at the University of Detroit, where he pursued writing more seriously, entering his work in short story contests and sending it off to magazines. A year before he graduated, he got a job as a copy writer with Campbell-Ewald Advertising agency, a position he kept for several years as he wrote on the side. He graduated in 1950 with a degree in English and Philosophy.
Leonard had his first success in 1951 when Argosy published the short story "Trail of the Apaches". During the 1950s and early 1960s, he continued writing westerns, publishing over 30 short stories. He wrote his first novel, The Bounty Hunters, in 1953 and followed this with four other novels. Two of his stories were turned into movies at this time, The Tall T and 3:10 to Yuma. In his long career, he has written in the genres of mystery, crime, and more topical genres, as well as screenwriting.
Leonard lives with his wife, Christine, in Bloomfield Village, Michigan.
Praise for Elmore Leonard:
"A master of narrative."
-- The New Yorker
"Elmore Leonard can write circles around almost anybody active in the crime novel today."
-- New York Times Book Review
"America's greatest crime master."
-- Newsweek
"Elmore Leonard isn't old school; Elmore Leonard built the school."
-- Joe Hill
"Elmore Leonard is an awfully good writer of a sneaky sort; he is so good you don't even notice what he's up to."
-- Washington Post Book World
"A superb craftsman . . . his writing is pure pleasure."
-- Los Angeles Times Book Review
"Elmore Leonard is our greatest crime novelist... the best in the business."
-- Washington Post
Praise for Road Dogs:
"Leonard writes with high style, great energy, unflappable cool and a jubilant love of the game. As ever, his scorn for fussy prose is best expressed through his own superbly lean locutions."
-- New York Times
"[T]here are hundreds of men and women who, in the twilight of their careers, should be regarded as national treasures... To that list let us add... Elmore Leonard, whose new book, Road Dogs, is yet another gem in a career that has endured for more than half a century and given us 42 novels... There is clearly more fun to be had here, and Leonard, the hippest, funniest national treasure in sight, is the man to prove it."
-- Washington Post
"[Elmore Leonard is an] American thriller king... A classic dictum of writing fiction is "show, don't tell"... Road Dogs illustrates that dictum perfectly, and shows why Leonard, at 83, is still a master at fluidly advancing narrative... Gripping... You can read Road Dogs for its thrills. Or you can read it for the way Leonard maestro-like orchestrates language and conducts dialogue. Works either way."
-- Winnipeg Free Press
"I've gone on record suggesting that the next time the members of the Swedish Academy think about giving the Nobel Prize for literature to an American, they take a look at Elmore Leonard."
-- Philadelphia Inquirer
"[Elmore Leonard] has created his own fictional world that we are privileged to visit now and then... Leonard commands such a broad spectrum of fans that he might justifiably be called America's Author. However, titles matter little; what truly counts is his ability to deliver a capital story splendidly told. Readers, rejoice! The beat goes on."
-- San Diego Union-Tribune
"A terrifically funny and quirky novel that delights and shocks as much as it entertains and astounds... Leonard writes in such a deliciously deadpan manner."
-- Providence Journal-Bulletin
"Elmore Leonard is to other crime writers what HD is to black-and-white TV. His spare, dialogue-heavy writing conveys the complexity, depth and personality of his characters without wasting a word. His plots are much less important than his unique style of populating them. Road Dogs is a perfect example: The tension comes from wondering whether his characters will do what Leonard has made us expect them to do. The fact that Leonard can make waiting so compelling is proof of his genius... Leonard is simply without equal."
-- Kansas City Star
Praise for Djibouti:
"[Leonard's] books' keys are diamond-hard dialogue, bevies of colorful characters, abrupt violence and plots with more twists than a Chubby Checker album. All are on full, glorious display in Djibouti... Leonard's books have always been cinematic - full of action, entertaining talk, exquisite pacing. Djibouti is not different... Djibouti is a pretty slick ride."
-- Post-Tribune
"Djibouti flies at a terrific tempo. The pace quickens just as the number one bad guy seizes center stage. This guy might be the most casually homicidal character in Leonard's history of crafting killers, which is saying a lot."
-- Toronto Star
"America's best crime writer. And once again, with Djibouti, the end product is pure enjoyment. You'd think that after more than 40 books, Elmore Leonard would slip just a little bit... But no, not this time, not in a book by the dean of crime writers."
-- Washington Times
Photo by Dermot Cleary