The Real Lonesome Dove

In 1985, when contemporary novelist Larry McMurtry’s ambitious epic Old West novel Lonesome Dove was published, the romantic, idyllic portrayal of the American cowboy, cattle drives and Texas had been replaced with the anti-Western, modern Western heroes (Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry, Larry Hagman’s J.R. of Dallas). So, it was to Archer City, Texas, native McMurtry’s great surprise that his epic violent frontier tale of the L