SOURCE: "Larry McMurtry: The First Phase," in Seasoned Authors for a New Season: The Search for Standards in Popular Writing, edited by Louis Filler, Bowling Green University Popular Press, 1980, pp. 70-82.

In the following essay, Morrow, who teaches literature at Auburn University, evaluates the structure, purpose and style of Hud and The Last Picture Show, comparing them to McMurtry's subsequent works.

Larry McMurtry has now written six novels, and this seems a reasonable moment in time to examine and judge his artistry, to consider the question of his quality. McMurtry's first three novels were tales of nostalgia, satire, cultural criticism and barbed wire phrases that condemned the modern West. Horseman, Pass By (better known as Hud, 1961) and Leaving Cheyenne (1963) were both cowboy stories of initiation, disillusionment and generational conflict set in Texas. The Last Picture Show (1966) was thematically similar and also set in Texas, but small town life...