Lonesome Dove

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1985

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Background

Literary Context: The Western Genre

Lonesome Dove is widely considered one of the preeminent examples of the American Western novel. Prior to its publication, Westerns were widely enjoyed but tended to take the form of much shorter novels, which were, in turn, part of much longer series. The popular Western writer Louis L’Amour wrote over one hundred books, but most of them could be read in an afternoon, and they each unfolded along specific formulas of the genre. Zane Grey wrote nearly as many books as L’Amour and appealed to a similar audience. Depending on the edition, Lonesome Dove is at least 800 pages.

Lonesome Dove is unique among popular Westerns because it both adhered to the genre and also defied many of its conventions. McMurtry embraces many of the tropes familiar to readers of Westerns. There are tensions between cowboys and Indigenous Americans, and Blue Duck is a stereotypical villain in a genre whose antagonists were often racist caricatures of Indigenous peoples. Sudden, brutal deaths are frequent. Wily, adventurous men like Gus rescue beautiful women with tragic pasts like Lorena and Clara. The toughest people are often the most likely to thrive; gunfighters are idolized and the naïve are often punished. There are vengeful sheriffs and shootouts; frontier justice is unforgiving and the sense of adventure is paramount. These qualities can be found in most Westerns, but Lonesome Dove heightens them by considering them ideologically, rather than reproducing them for entertainment, and interrogating what these tropes suggest about American masculinity, the relationship between the geographical and emotional landscape of the American west, and the effects of time on systems of value and cultural norms.

Authorial Context: Larry McMurtry

Larry McMurtry (1936-2021) was an American author who wrote over 30 novels. In the Preface to later editions of Lonesome Dove, McMurtry states that it was his most popular novel by far and that it allowed him entry into the literary world of “respectable” writers. He also writes that he intended all along for Call to do the right thing and claim Newt as his own. It surprised the author himself that this never happened, a fact that, for McMurtry, makes the novel more of a tragedy than a Western.

Lonesome Dove was published before the other novels that involve Gus and Call but, chronologically, it is the third novel about their lives. Dead Man’s Walk shows the two as teenagers as they enter the Rangers and rapidly ascend through the ranks. The hallmarks of their characters are there at the beginning including Call’s temper and Gus’s impulsive, argumentative whimsy. One of the book’s highlights is Gus’s initial meeting with Clara. The following novel, Comanche Moon, shows Gus and Call well into their careers, fighting to settle the frontier in the battles for which they are celebrated in Lonesome Dove. Finally, The Streets of Laredo (1993) takes place after the events of Lonesome Dove. Call is still alive and works as a bounty hunter with Gus’s memory never far from his thoughts.

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While Lonesome Dove is McMurtry’s most famous book, his writing was not limited to the traditional Western genre. His other novels include The Last Picture Show (1966) and Terms of Endearment (1975) both of which were made into award-winning films. He also wrote several volumes of non-fiction including travelogues of the South Pacific and the U.S. highway system. He also regularly contributed essays to the prestigious New York Review of Books. McMurtry used the American West, especially Texas, to explore universal themes of loyalty, identity, and endurance.