Getting Justified, or: Why Elmore Leonard still rocks us, even after his death...

We spent our down time this past weekend

getting caught up on one of our favorite series: JUSTIFIED, the gritty, backwoods crime show on FX, starring Timothy Olyphant along side a supreme cast of just-my-type-of characters.

AS the title of this blog infers, JUSTIFIED is an Elmore Leonard creation; he conceptualized it, wrote it, and put his money where his mouth went by producing it as well.

Leonard is, and has been for some time, one of

Raylan & Boyd are among an allstar cast on
FX's JUSTIFIED

my writing heroes.  Born in the south (New Orleans) he carried the flavor of it with him as his family moved north where he went to school (Detroit, Michigan) and learned to combine contrasting characters, from their attitudes to their dialects.

 

There is a long list of works that you are most likely familiar with, but may not realize that Elmore Leonard wrote them.  Much like Larry McMurtry (another writer that tops my list of

favorites, as well as one who has been a major

influence on Yours Truly, stylistically speaking) his work is more widely known by title, than by credit to the writer, as--I suppose--it should be.

When I first made the decision that I wanted to be a writer, it was men like these that drew me to the mostly thankless craft; perhaps that's why I always feel it my duty to thank them.

Often called: "The Dickens of Detroit", Elmore

made his bones with his early work, especially those that were taken to film.  Works like "The Tall T", "3:10 to Yuma", and "Joe Kidd" launched his career, after several years of writing westerns for magazines.  

In the 1970s he cemented his reputation with

such titles as "Mr. Majestik" and "52 Pickup" but many of you may be more familiar with titles like: "Get Shorty", "Stay Cool", and of course "JUSTIFIED" which if you have not caught it yet, get yourself on Netflix or Amazon and get to binging!

If you're starving for some book titles, Elmore's

Quinten Tarantino adapted this
one into the film "Jackie Brown"

list goes on and on, so many have been taken to film it's down right ridiculous, but he really mastered the fine art of what I like to call: streamlined fiction.  Leonard always said of his writing style: "I always try and just leave out the stuff that most readers skip over..."

Like all good fiction, that's what leaves you ready to pick up the next one.

The Novel JUSTIFIED is
Based upon...

JUSTIFIED, just like his books, keeps you going, ready to get on to the next episode even before the credits finish running.  

Elmore Leonard, folks: born 1925 in New Orleans, died this past August 2013 in Michigan.

Elmore Leonard: list of works can be further studied at his website, or at IMDB.