The Mysterious Bookshop in New York has started publishing essays by writers that are biographies/profiles of their most famous character. The bookstore is going to print up about a thousand copies and also about a hundred hardcover copies of each. They have all the info in their newsletter, which you can get here: http://www.mysteriousbookshop.com.

My question is, as Elmore Leonard doesn’t exactly write continuing characters like traditional mystery writers, who would you call his most famous character? Or would it be something like a timeline of the Webster family, or maybe all the touchstones?

who would you call his [Elmore’s] most famous character?

I would say:

Ernest “Stick” Stickley - Swag and Stick
Chili Palmer - Get Shorty and Be Cool
Jack Foley - Out of Sight
Carl Webster - The Hot Kid, Comfort to the Enemy and Up in Honey’s Room

We’ll have a little discussion and I’ll make it into a poll.

The most famous has to be Chili Palmer
You say “Elmore Leonard” and are met by a blank stare, you go “Get Shorty” the mouth opens in that little circle of recognition
Granted this is cinematic but that is what fame is all about. Right? Who knows? Who nose?
What about female characters?
Karen Sisco for sure

Son, if you’re going around saying Elmore Leonard & just getting blank stares you must be mixing with the wrong people.

My vote has to go to Stickley. Most of the timeline is pretty well laid out: childhood in Norman; basketball player; thru the events in Swag & Stick. As Son points out, we mustn’t forget the girls, so you have to include Stick’s wife & daughter. It’s easy to imagine what the ex-Mrs Stickley’s like. I wonder what became of his little girl? In fact, I often wonder what became of Stickley himself. He must’ve been born around 1940 so he’d be well into retirement age by now. How is he making out? Is he on welfare or in a retirement home or did he finally make a score? Personally I always picture him getting out of paying the alimony at the end of Stick. He takes the money & runs, buys himself a Toyota dealership, maybe back in Oklahoma, & makes his fortune. Gets his daughter thru college. Finally pays the ex-Mrs Stickley a decent sum every month, but she doesn’t declare the income & ends up being hounded by the Treasury for the rest of her miserable life.

I know, man, the crowd is part of the environment we each of us, hero and villain, grow up in,
but fame is the bright light of recognition beyond the realm of ones own neighborhood.
You have to agree that in terms of fame Chili is more famous than Stick
I can see your grasp of Earnest Stickley as an essential “Touchstone” in the EL universe
A “real life” character with a real life wherein all things human are possible and we as “normal people” can relate,
we don’t get that with Chili.
I too want to know what happens to Calvin McGuire and Karen Hill
after this fold we know as Gold Coast has occurred,
very “one off” kind of story that begs a sequel.
Glad to see you and John Mc getting along

oops