Larry McMurtry stated in interviews that he sought to write an anti-Western novel that would dispel the glamorized myth of the American cowboy. In a 1988 New York Times article called "A Texan Who Likes to Deflate The Legends of the Golden West," McMurtry speaks about his project of "remythicizing" the cowboy, an endeavor "akin to historical renovation" (Rothstein). Rather than romanticizing the cowboy lifestyle (which effectively narrows the scope of understanding to a "clean-living...rural way of life"), McMurtry instead hoped to depict richly flawed characters.
Readers have pointed out similarities between the two main characters Augustus McCrae and Woodraw Call and the real-life cattle drivers Charles Goodnight and Oliver Loving. The Goodnight-Loving Trail (named after the pair) was a path used in late 19th-century cattle drives. During their third cattle drive, Loving ventured ahead to market the cattle and was mortally wounded in a skirmish with Comanche people. When Loving made it to Fort Sumner, it quickly became apparent that he would die of gangrene. Goodnight made it in time before Loving's death, and promised Loving to bury him in Texas. Augustus's death and final request parallels that of this historical figure. Charles Goodnight also makes a brief appearance in Lonesome Dove when he encounters Call on the trail. In McMurtry's memoir, he writes that the real models for Call and Augustus are the characters Don Quixote and Sancho Panza from Miguel de Cervantes's novel The Ingenious Gentleman Don Quixote of La Mancha.
