DETROIT (AP) — Elmore Leonard, a former adman who later became one of America’s foremost crime writers, died Tuesday. He was 87.
His researcher, Gregg Sutter, said Leonard died from complications from a stroke he suffered a few weeks ago.
Leonard won an honorary National Book Award in 2012.
His more than 40 novels were populated by pathetic schemers, clever con men and casual killers. Many of the novels — notably “Out of Sight,” ”Get Shorty” and “Be Cool” — were made into films. Critics adored his simple, direct language.
His millions of fans made all his books since “Glitz” (1985) best-sellers. When they flocked to watch John Travolta in the movie version of “Get Shorty” in 1995, its author became the darling of Hollywood’s hippest directors.
His novels were characterized by moral ambivalence about crime, black humor and wickedly acute depictions of human nature.
“When something sounds like writing, I rewrite it,” Leonard often said. As author Ann Arensberg put it in a New York Times book review, “I didn’t know it was possible to be as good as Elmore Leonard.”
One remarkable thing about Leonard’s talent is how long it took the world to notice. He didn’t have a best-seller until his 60th year, and few critics took him seriously before the 1990s.
He had some minor successes in the 1950s and ’60s in writing Western stories and novels, a couple of which were made into movies. But when interest in the Western dried up, he turned to writing scripts for educational and industrial films while trying crime novels.
The first, “The Big Bounce,” was rejected 84 times before it was published as a paperback in 1969.
Leonard followed up with several more well-written, fast-paced crime novels, including “Swag” (1976). Leonard was already following the advice he would later give to young writers: “Try to leave out the parts that people skip.”
Hollywood rediscovered him. It took Barry Sonnenfeld to finally show Hollywood how to turn a Leonard novel into a really good movie. “Get Shorty” was the first to feel and sound like an Elmore Leonard novel.
Then Quentin Tarantino took a turn with “Rum Punch,” turning it into “Jackie Brown,” a campy, Blaxploitation-style film starring Pam Grier. But Steven Soderbergh stayed faithful to Leonard’s story and dialogue with “Out of Sight.”
Leonard married three times: to the late Beverly Cline in 1949, the late Joan Shepard in 1979 and, at the age of 68, to Christine Kent in 1993. He had five children, all from his first marriage.
In 2012, after learning he was to become a National Book Award lifetime achievement recipient, Leonard said he had no intention of ending his life’s work.
“I probably won’t quit until I just quit everything — quit my life — because it’s all I know how to do,” he told The Associated Press at the time. “And it’s fun. I do have fun writing, and a long time ago, I told myself, ‘You got to have fun at this, or it’ll drive you nuts.'”
Copyright 2013 The Associated Press.