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Elmore Leonard (John Elmore Leonard), 1925–, American novelist, b. New Orleans, grad. Univ. of Detroit (1950). Leonard, who is nicknamed "Dutch," began publishing Western tales in the early 1950s, the best known of which is Hombre (1961; film, 1967). His first crime novel, The Big Bounce, was published in 1969; he since has contributed numerous novels and short stories to the genre. Leonard developed a gritty realism in style and setting (often Detroit), a hard-boiled and tough-talking cast of outsider characters, and a deadpan humor that has made him one of America's top crime writers. Many of his novels have become films, frequently with his own screenplays. Among his most popular books are Fifty-two Pickup (1974; film, 1984 and 1986), Stick (1983; film, 1985), LaBrava (1983), Glitz (1985), Get Shorty (1990; film, 1995), Maximum Bob (1990), Rum Punch (1992), Out of Sight (1996; film, 1998), Be Cool (1999), and Tishomingo Blues (2002).
See biographies by D. Geherin (1989), J. E. Devlin (1999), and P. C. Challen (2000); documentary, Elmore Leonard's Criminal Records (1991), by M. Dibb and R. Horsley.
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