Elmore Leonard Dies

**WWJNewsradio950** · August-20-13, 08:19 AM

According to a message from his family on his FB page. More to come.

**rb336** · August-20-13, 08:21 AM

I expected this, rest in piece Dutch

**Honky Tonk** · August-20-13, 08:48 AM

I had the pleasure of meeting and spending an evening with both him and his wife @ the Scarab Club. Wonderful, down to earth people. My condolences.

**Lowell** · August-20-13, 08:56 AM

It has also been announced on his website http://elmoreleonard.com/. As I know the webmaster who is his decades-long researcher it, sadly, must be so. He had suffered a stroke on the 5th.

As I had the task and honor of building the first iteration of his website I became quite familiar with his life story. It is a Detroit story both in personal life and his art from U of D high school, to service in the South Pacific in WWII, back to Detroit where he rose to fame as writer and continued to stay on all along. He was a humble giant of his art who worked his magic to the end. Condolences to his family and friends. May he rest in peace.

**Zacha341** · August-20-13, 09:03 AM

Thank you for the details of his life and work Lowell. I know of him only thru the adaptations of his books into movies which I love. I hope to read his books soon.

**Detroitnerd** · August-20-13, 09:29 AM

Author of my hands-down favorite quote about Detroit ever:

Other cities get by on their looks.
Detroit has to work for a living.

**Kathleen** · August-20-13, 09:33 AM

RIP, Dutch Leonard!!

I was first introduced to him with City Primeval at the Book and Author Luncheon in 1980. Read many of his books through the years. And just last year heard him and son Peter speak on their books and writing experiences to an SRO crowd at the Baldwin Public Library in Birmingham. The line to get books signed and photos taken lasted well beyond the library closing hour!!! Of course, I couldn't resist...and had to get another copy of Get Shorty signed for the collection!

He was truly a gem of a guy!! A real ambassador for Detroit and Michigan!!! He surely will be missed.

**brizee** · August-20-13, 11:00 AM

While I've never read/seen anything by him, I hear Justified is pretty damn excellent.

I've seen it put up there with the likes of The Shield and The Wire. There's worse company to be associated with.

**Hypestyles** · August-20-13, 11:51 AM

God bless...

**Django** · August-20-13, 01:17 PM

What a great story he lived and stories he wrote. I had always hoped to meet him somehow and have the strangest feeling I did one day on Belle Isle but its just a feeling.

Ive only read two or three of his less popular books. Can someone give me a list of their favorites? Ive always meant to read more by him, now seems a good time but Im not sure where to start.

**bailey** · August-20-13, 01:18 PM

Originally Posted by Detroitnerd

Author of my hands-down favorite quote about Detroit ever:

Other cities get by on their looks.
Detroit has to work for a living.

a while back when flying into detroit, a guy i worked for said that and attributed it to Coleman Young... I didn't look it up or question it. Hindsight being 20/20...the lack of a 'muthafucker" in it should have been a give away.

**Lowell** · August-20-13, 05:46 PM

Speaking of Elmore. Here is my favorite tidbit on writing. Number 5 is particularly relevant for this forum, and me!!

1. Never open a book with weather.
2. Avoid prologues.
3. Never use a verb other than "said" to carry dialogue.
4. Never use an adverb to modify the verb "said”…he admonished gravely.
5. Keep your exclamation points under control. You are allowed no more than two or three per 100,000 words of prose..
6. Never use the words "suddenly" or "all hell broke loose."
7. Use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.
8. Avoid detailed descriptions of characters.
9. Don't go into great detail describing places and things.
10. Try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip.

My most important rule is one that sums up the 10.

If it sounds like writing, I rewrite it.

**preserve** · August-22-13, 01:33 PM

Loved his books. One of my favorites of late was "Up in Honey's Room" - WW11
story of a German POW escaping from Fort Wayne.

**Sandhouse** · August-26-13, 12:08 PM

I knew from his age that this must happen soon, but it's still bad news. The Detroit scenes in these books are really lifelike; I can't pass 1300 Beaubien without thinking of these stories.

I used Amazon to get a copy of Swag, after learning it was about a hypothetical robbery of the J.L. Hudson payroll. After working in the downtown store in 1970-71, I could visualize the exact places in that building where Leonard set his characters -- the windowed stairwells that were open to the public, the big flourescent-lit room full of clerks totalling the receipts, and the wood-paneled 11th floor tellers' windows.

And he could do places and times he didn't see. After reading the powerful Cuba Libre, I feel I know what Spanish-occupied Cuba was like -- more violent and vicious than Detroit. I'll bet there are a lot of people everywhere who know Detroit through these books.