Elmore Leonard is an American crime and western author whose novels are often adapted into films.http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-leonard-elmore.asp With more than 40 books published, his best-sellers include Up In Honey's Room, The Hot Kid, Mr Paradise, and Tishomingo Blues. Films adapted from his books include Out of Sight, Get Shorty and Be Cool.http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-leonard-elmore.asp Leonard wrote occasionally as a child, but it was in 1949, when he joined the Campbell-Ewald advertising agency while in college, that he began to take the hobby seriously.http://www.randomhouse.com/features/elmoreleonard/about/

He began writing westerns and published his first novel The Bounty Hunters in 1953, and in 1969 wrote his first crime novel, The Big Bounce. When Glitz was released in 1985, it became the first of many best-sellers.http://www.randomhouse.com/features/elmoreleonard/about/ He also won the Grand Master Award of the Mystery Writers of America in 1992.http://www.mysterywriters.org/?q=edgars-pastwinners Leonard lives with wife Christine in Bloomfield Village, Detroit, Michigan and is father to five children.http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-leonard-elmore.asp http://www.randomhouse.com/features/elmoreleonard/about/

After reading Erich Maria Remarque's All Quiet on the Western Front in 1935, Leonard wrote a play based on it for his fifth-grade classroom. He read a lot in high school and wrote an occasional story for the school newspaper.http://www.randomhouse.com/features/elmoreleonard/about/ He graduated in 1943, joined the navy for three years, and then enrolled at the University of Detroit. He joined the Campbell-Ewald advertising agency while in school, where he again took up writing. He entered short story competitions and graduated in 1950 with a major in English and philosophy.http://www.randomhouse.com/features/elmoreleonard/about/ Leonard began writing westerns and published his first novel The Bounty Hunters in 1953. He published four more books over the following eight years. By 1961, the year his novel Hombre was chosen by the Western Writers of America as "one of the best westerns of all time," he had published 30 short stories, five novels, and made two movie adaptation sales. Leonard became eventually quit the advertising agency and began writing full-time.http://www.randomhouse.com/features/elmoreleonard/about/ However, as the market for westerns slowed, he took to writing Encyclopaedia Britannica educational films, advertising and sales material and industrial films for corporations.http://www.randomhouse.com/features/elmoreleonard/about/

Leonard then switched genres, beginning with the 1969 crime novel The Big Bounce. 1985's Glitz became his "breakout" best-seller.http://www.randomhouse.com/features/elmoreleonard/about/ From then on his novels, including Bandits, Killshot, Rum Punch and Cuba Libre, became national best-sellers.http://www.randomhouse.com/features/elmoreleonard/about/ Three of his books, The Switch, Split Images and LaBrava, have been nominated for the Edgar Allan Poe Award by the Mystery Writers of America. In 1991, Maximum Bob was awarded the first annual International Association of Crime Writers' North American Hammett Prize, and in 1992 Leonard was given The Grand Master Award for lifetime achievement by the Mystery Writers of America.http://www.crimewritersna.org/hammett/past.htm http://www.mysterywriters.org/?q=edgars-pastwinners

His Hollywood career includes 40 writing credits for movies and television. Films such as 3:10 to Yuma, Jackie Brown (from novel Rum Punch) and Get Shorty starred a number of well-known actors like John Travolta, Christian Bale, Russell Crowe, Robert DeNiro and Rene Russo.http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001465/ Leonard has also written three television series - the pilot for Maximum Bob (1998), Karen Sisco (2003-2004) and Justified (2010).http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001465/ The film rights to his 34th novel, Cuba Libre, were released in February 1998 and bought by directors Joel and Ethan Coen.http://www.randomhouse.com/features/elmoreleonard/about/

"I accept the fact that I'm a crime writer. That's what I do - guys with guns,"—Interview with Katy Moeller of the Daily Gazette in 2000http://www.albany.edu/writers-inst/webpages4/archives/gazleonard.html

"I've always been inspired in this somewhat commercial approach toward writing. Which is why I chose westerns to begin with,"—Transcript of interview with Martin Amis at the Writers Guild Theatre in Beverly Hills on January 23, 1998http://www.martinamisweb.com/interviews_files/amis_int_leonard.doc

"The thing people forget is that I've been trying to do something new and different in my books. My characters are what the books are about: the plot just kind of comes along. But movies always want to concentrate on the action,"—Interview with Jeff Hudson of The Guardian on July 31, 2004http://www.guardian.co.uk/film/2004/jul/31/booksforchildrenandteenagers.elmoreleonard

• 2010: Djiboutihttp://www.elmoreleonard.com/
• 2007: Up in Honey's Room (crime/period) http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 2005: Comfort to the Enemy (New York Times serial novel in 14 parts)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 2005: The Hot Kid (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 2002: Mr Paradise (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 2002: Tishomingo Blues (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 2000: Pagan Babies (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1999: Be Cool (crime, sequel to Get Shorty)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1998: Cuba Libre (crime/period/western)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1998: Maximum Bob (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1997: Jackie Brown (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1996: Out of Sight (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1995: Riding the Rap (crime)<ref>http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1993: Pronto (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1992: Rum Punch (crime, filmed as Jackie Brown)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1991: Maximum Bob (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1991: Get Shorty (crime, filmed under same name)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1989: Killshot (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1988: Freaky Deaky (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1987: Touch (contemporary, filmed under same name)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1987: Bandits (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1985: Glitz (crime, filmed for television under same name)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1983: Labrava (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1983: Stick (crime, filmed under same name)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1982: Cat Chaser (crime, filmed under same name)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1981: Split Images (crime, filmed for television under same name)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1980: Gold Coast (crime, filmed for television as Elmore Leonard's Gold Coast)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1980: City Primeval (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1979: Gunsights (western)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1978: The Switch (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1977: The Hunted (crime, original title Hat Trick)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1977: Unknown Man No. 89 (crime)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1976: Swag (crime, first paperback edition called Ryan's Rules)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1974: Fifty-Two Pickup (filmed under same name)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1974: Mr Majestyk (filmed under same name)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1972: Forty Lashes Less One (western)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1970: Valdez is Coming (western, filmed under same name)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1969: The Moonshine War (period/crime, filmed under same name)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1969: The Big Bounce (crime, filmed twice under same name)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1961: Hombre (western, filmed under same name)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1959: Last Stand at Saber River (western)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1956: Escape from Five Shadows (western)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1954: The Law at Randado (western, filmed as Border Shootout)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/
• 1953: The Bounty Hunters (western)http://www.elmoreleonard.com/index.php?/novels/