Lonesome Dove is a Western novel by Larry McMurtry published in 1985. Set in the 1870s, the book follows two retired Texas Rangers named Woodrow Call and Augustus McCrae as they organize a cattle drive and set out from Lonesome Dove, Texas to Montana to start a ranch. They encounter many trials and tribulations along the way, including extreme weather, hostile strangers, and dangerous wildlife. Although McMurtry set out to write a book that would critique and dispel grandiose myths about the American frontier (also called the Old West), Lonesome Dove became one of the most popular Western novels of all time.
While McMurtry is known for writing character-driven novels, he intertwines the characters' inner conflicts in Lonesome Dove with plenty of exciting action. Typical Western tropes such as raids into Mexico, bounty hunting, violent justice, and clashes with Native Americans appear throughout Lonesome Dove. At the beginning of the novel, Woodrow Call hears about the beautiful open territory in Montana and feels compelled to start a ranch there before other settlers arrive. Augustus McCrae (Call's best friend and business partner in the Hat Creek Cattle Company) takes a less romantic stance on the notion of settling in a new place, but nonetheless agrees to go on the drive. The original members of the Hat Creek outfit as well as the men hired on to work as cowhands each have their perspectives and experiences during the trip. Deets, the only African American crew member, is the most critical about the whole endeavor of journeying into other peoples' territory. His instincts prove correct when a misunderstanding with a Native American man ends in both their deaths. Other characters turn back or die on the way to Montana, but those that make it stay for at least a season to help Call establish his ranch. Before Augustus dies, he leaves a final request to be buried in Lonesome Dove, causing his friend to physically (and metaphorically) return right back to where he started.
The main storyline intersects with another concerning Jake Spoon's accidental murder of a dentist and mayor in Fort Smith, Arkansas. This sets off a series of events that culminates with Sheriff July Johnson pursuing both Jake and the sheriff's wife, Elmira, when she runs away. Though the characters from the different storylines encounter one another during their travels, they spend the most time together while at Clara Allen's ranch. Clara is Augustus's love interest who ultimately rejects all her suitors after her husband's death. Love—whether platonic, romantic, or unrequited—plays a central role in the novel.
Aside from being a bestseller, Lonesome Dove won Larry McMurtry the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction in 1986. The book also spent twenty weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List, and in addition to the nation’s top literary honor, it also collected the Spur Award from the Western Writers of America and the Texas Institute of Letters Award for Fiction. Readership expanded in 1989 with the airing of a TV miniseries based on the novel that enjoyed huge ratings and won several Emmy and Golden Globe awards. In 1993, McMurtry published a sequel called Streets of Laredo that is set twenty years later. The sequel bears the title of the screenplay which became the stimulus—by virtue of it never having being produced—for writing his epic anti-western, or definitive Western adventure novel, depending on the perspective.
