New Bio Spotlights Criminally Cool Author Elmore Leonard

He’s been referred to by the rather unwieldy sobriquet of “The Master of Contemporary American Crime Fiction.” And many critics and readers have agreed that he’s a worthy heir to the hardboiled fiction of scribes like James M. Cain, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett and Jim Thompson.

But the more apt description that’s often laid on him is “The Dickens of Detroit.”

That’s because for decades, Elmore Leonard churned out scores of novels, short stories, screenplays, and even non-fiction chronicling the underbelly of underworld activities. His work is noted for his use of realistic and hard-hitting dialogue. And (perhaps as a nod to his literary hero, Ernest Hemingway) never using ten words to describe something when three will do just fine.

He's probably best known in the wider culture for the adaptations of his work on the big screen (Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Be Cool, Jackie Brown, 3:10 to Yuma) and the small one (Justified, with the wildly popular character Raylan Givens). But it’s his work on the typewritten page that gets the lion’s share of attention in C.M. Kushins’ Cooler Than Cool: The Life and Work of Elmore Leonard (512 pp., $32, Mariner Books).

It’s the first full-length look at the prolific Leonard. Paul Challen’s 2000 work Get Dutch! (a nod to Leonard’s well-known nickname) was a relatively slim volume. Kushins’ research also benefits in that he had the full cooperation of Leonard’s family and access to all of his archives, papers, diaries and research materials.

As a young man, Leonard didn’t necessarily have the fiery ambition to write fiction, after serving in the U.S. Navy during World War II and then going to college on the GI Bill. but through sheer determination and a set schedule, he went down that road.


https://www.houstonpress.com/arts/things-to-do-read-the-elmore-leonard-biography-cooler-than-cool-by-cm-kushins-20958933