Author Elmore Leonard dies at 87

Jocelyn McClurg and Carol Memmott | USA TODAY

Elmore Leonard, who died Tuesday at age 87, influenced an entire generation of crime writers who followed, including George Pelecanos, the novelist and TV writer (The Wire, Treme).

"I think for all of us a generation behind him who started writing in the '90s — people like (Michael) Connelly and (Dennis) Lehane and Laura Lippman - we all came up together and pretty much acknowledged he was the one guy who turned us on to the idea we could do something different in the genre," Pelecanos, 56, told USA TODAY Tuesday.

Leonard, best known for gritty crime novels including Get Shorty and shoot-'em up Westerns such as the short story 3:10 to Yuma, died from complications from a stroke. Most recently, he was known for his connection to the FX series Justified, which stars Timothy Olyphant as disgraced U.S. Marshal Raylan Givens. The show is based on Leonard's short story Fire in the Hole.

Pelecanos remembered the first time he met the older writer. "I was nervous. It was like meeting Elvis. But he couldn't have been more cool to a young guy just starting out."

Leonard died at his home in Bloomfield Village, Mich., "surrounded by his loving family," Michael Morrison, president and publisher of HarperCollins, said in a statement.

"It feels not in keeping with Elmore's 'no fuss' persona to try to pay tribute to this great man. But Elmore was a true legend — unpretentious, unbelievably talented and the coolest dude in the room," Morrison said.

His editor, David Highfill, vice president and executive editor of publisher William Morrow, released a statement Tuesday: "There was, is and will be only one Elmore Leonard. He was the most original in this prolific age of American crime fiction, the original jazz man. His voice — sly, gentle, funny, often startling, always human — will speak to readers for generations to come through Ray Givens, Jack Foley, Chili Palmer and so many other unforgettable characters. I miss him already."

Leonard was born in 1925 in New Orleans. His family moved frequently, finally settling in the Detroit area when he was 11. His father worked for General Motors.

He said his interest in literature began in the fifth grade when he read a serialization of All Quiet on the Western Front in a Detroit newspaper. In interviews through the years, he said he was most influenced by Ernest Hemingway, John Steinbeck and Raymond Carver.

Leonard's first novel, The Bounty Hunters, a Western set in southern Arizona, was published in 1953. He wrote more than 40 novels. Others include Mr. Paradise (2004), The Hot Kid (2005) and Up in Honey's Room (2007). His 2009 novel, Road Dogs, was about ex-con/career bank robber Jack Foley (a character from his 1996 novel Out of Sight who was portrayed by George Clooney in the 1998 film).

Crime writer George Pelecanos, a friend and admirer of Leonard, remembered the first time he met the older writer. "I was nervous," Pelecanos, 56, told USA TODAY on Tuesday. "It was like meeting Elvis. But he couldn't have been more cool to a young guy just starting out." Leonard, Pelecanos said, influenced an entire generation of younger crime writers.

Leonard's last novel, Raylan, published in 2012, featured the character portrayed by Olyphant on Justified, which will enter its fifth season early next year.

Leonard wrote Raylan with encouragement from Justified executive producer Graham Yost. Elements from the book showed up in the series.

"I dedicated the book to them," Leonard told USA TODAY last year, adding that it was his idea to have Olyphant grace the cover. "They're running with it, and I think it's terrific. I couldn't be more pleased."

Raylan, like many of Leonard's books, was a best seller. It hit No. 37 on USA TODAY's Best-Selling Books list, his best showing on the list, which started in 1993.

Leonard was a screenwriter for films including 1974's Mr. Majestyk starring Charles Bronson and 1972's Joe Kidd starring Clint Eastwood.

Quentin Tarantino's acclaimed 1997 film Jackie Brown was based on Leonard's novel Rum Punch, although Leonard did not write the screen adaptation.

Leonard wasn't always happy with what Hollywood did to his work, even though he didn't regret selling the rights. "I've sold 20, maybe, to movies, because from the beginning, I was in it to make money," he said in 2012. "And that's the way to do it."

Justified,he said, was an exception: an adaptation that worked. "I think it's a terrific show," he said. "I love all the writing. And I'm amazed sometimes. They've got the characters better than I put them on paper."

His friends at Justified expressed their condolences on Tuesday. Yost, Olyphant and the cast and crew released this statement: "We were blessed by the time we got to spend with him, and we will miss him. Our thoughts are with his family. Take it easy, Elmore. PS: We wrote longer versions of this statement, but as Elmore always said: Leave out the parts people tend to skip."

John Landgraf, CEO of FX Networks and FX Productions, called Leonard "a genius and a gentleman, and he will remain in our hearts."

When asked the secret of his success, Leonard once said, "My purpose is to entertain and please myself. I feel that if I am entertained, then there will be enough other readers who will be entertained, too."

He won many writing awards in his lifetime including the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America and a medallion from the National Book Foundation for Distinguished Contribution to American Letters.

In 2007, he published Elmore Leonard's 10 Rules of Writing, an 89-page book in which he shared advice and commentary on the writing process. He wrote, "These are the rules I've picked up along the way to help me remain invisible when I'm writing a book, to help me show rather than tell what's taking place in the story."

Among his rules:

• "Never open a book with weather."

• "Keep your exclamation points under control."

• "Never use the words 'suddenly' or 'all hell broke loose.'"

• "Avoid detailed descriptions of characters."

He also wrote in the book, "My most important rule is one that sums up the 10: If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it."

He practiced what he preached. His novels are known best for their spare and snappy dialogue and their bracing realism.

Leonard was known to his friends as "Dutch." He said in an interview that he needed a nickname in high school, so he took the name Dutch, inspired by similarities between his name and that of Emil Dutch Leonard, a pitcher with the Washington Senators.

Contributing: Gary Levin