Leaving Cheyenne

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Leaving Cheyenne
LeavingCheyenne.jpg
First edition
Author Larry McMurtry
LanguageEnglish
SeriesThalia: A Texas Trilogy
GenreFiction
Publisher Harper & Row
Publication date
1963
Publication placeUnited States
Pages298 (hardcover first edition)
ISBN 0140052216 (1979 Penguin edition)
Preceded by Horseman, Pass By  
Followed by The Last Picture Show  

Leaving Cheyenne is the second novel written by author Larry McMurtry. It was published in 1963. The novel portrays the lives of people living in Texas from about 1920 to about 1965. [1] [2]

Leaving Cheyenne is written in three parts. Each is a first person account from one of the main characters involved in a life-long love triangle: Gideon, Johnny, and Molly.

The novel was adapted into the 1974 film Lovin' Molly , starring Anthony Perkins and Beau Bridges.

Film adaptation

Film rights to the novel were purchased by Warner Bros. in 1964. McMurtry says Warner wanted to call the film Gid, after the lead character Gideon, to cash in on the success of the 1963 movie Hud , based on McMurty's first novel, Horseman, Pass By . McMurtry said, "Something like seven scripts ensued, one of them done by Robert Altman, another of them nursed along for years by Don Siegel. Insidiously unfilmic, the book resisted all but the most foolhardy efforts to drag it onto celluloid, until, in 1974, it finally succumbed to the abundantly foolhardy efforts of Stephen Friedman and Sidney Lumet and appeared as Lovin' Molly". [3] [4]

References

  1. "Leaving Cheyenne: A Novel". Kirkus Reviews . June 15, 1963. Retrieved March 31, 2024.
  2. Sprague, Marshall (October 16, 1963). "Texas Triptych". The New York Times. Retrieved 2024-04-01.
  3. McMurtry, Larry (1987). Film Flam: Essays on Hollywood . New York: Simon & Schuster. p. 6. ISBN   0743216245.
  4. O'Neal, Sean (2022-09-27). "The Film That Set the Standard on How Not to Portray Texas". Texas Monthly. Retrieved 2024-04-01.