Remembering Elmore Leonard (October 11, 1925 – August 20, 2013)

Prolific and award winning author Elmore Leonard helped to popularize the crime thriller genre and is celebrated for his fast-paced, direct writing style as well as his idiosyncratic, colourful characters.

Although primarily remembered for his crime thrillers, he started out writing Western stories while working at an advertising agency.

Some of his best known works include Get Shorty, Out of Sight, Hombre and Rum Punch. He is also the author of a number of short stories.

Leonard passed away last Tuesday at the age of 87 at his home in Michigan. At the time of his death, he was in the process of writing his 46^th novel. Twenty six of his novels and short stories have been adapted for movies or television programs including his short story 3:10 to Yuma which was made into a movie starring Christian bale and Rusell Crowe.

In a 2001 New York Times article, Leonard famously wrote his 10 fundamental rules for writing, which included such tips as “never open a book with weather,” “try to leave out the part that readers tend to skip,” and “use regional dialect, patois, sparingly.”

The Toronto Public Library has a number of Leonard's works, in a variety of formats.