Here’s one that came up in conversation last week: How in the world can it be that Elmore has won an Edgar Award for best novel only once?

This, to me, is mind-boggling. He’s published 29 novels since 52 Pick-Up in ‘74. In the years that Swag, Unknown Man, City Primeval, Glitz, Bandits, Freaky Deaky, Killshot, Get Shorty, Rum Punch, Out Of Sight, Pagan Babies, and Tishomingo Blues came out (to name a few), how can it be that books by others were judged even half as good, let alone better?

Smells like politics to me.

Elmore was nominated but didn’t win in ‘79 for The Switch, and ‘83 for Split Images and didn’t win, finally winning in ‘84 with LaBrava.

In all the other years he wasn’t even nominated. This is like voting Tiger Woods golfer of the year once then ignoring him thereafter, even though he’s the dominant ass-kicker in the game, winning consistently.

It’s pretty much universally acknowledged that books like Glitz and Freaky Deaky and Get Shorty, and Tishomingo Blues are unrivaled in any year, let alone the one in which they were published. What a crock. IMO, the Edgar Awards are a joke.

What I want to know is, why hasn’t Elmore Leonard won a National Book Award, or a National Book Cricitics Circle Award or now that the Man Booker has an American category will he win that?

I’m trying to get him a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame too.

Marty Scorsese, Robert Altman, and Alfred Hitchock never won an Oscar for Best Director ... but Kevin Costner did.
Awards are a crock.
EL’s troubles with awards are probably attributable to his transparency as a writer. He’s a populist and makes writing seem so easy and simple that he’s mistakenly not taken seriously for his literary skills.
Like William Burroughs said, ““F*ck em all, squares on both sides…I am the only complete man in the industry”

To get a Star you have to have money and I am sure Elmore can afford the star!!
Those Stars are a JOKE anyway.
It’s all about the MONEY
Why else would Ryan Seacrest have a Star!!

Joke or no joke, I think he would get a kick out of it while at the same time thinking it’s stupid.

I think it would be cool to visit Dutch’s star and take a photo of it.
He’s more deserving than half the people who have stars.
Maybe he can get the star in front of the Viper room.

UPDATE:

Martin Scorsese has now won an Oscar.

There are no stars in front of the Viper Room.  There should be—Dutch and Young Indy.

The star would be nice, but. . .

Give him the Nobel.

Good Call Robb

Oscar for Martin?  Well deserved, and it’s about friggin’ time.

Same thing could be said about a Star for Elmore. 

Nobel?  Isn’t the Pulitzer considered more prestigeous? 
Has a crime novel ever won a Pulitzer?

It’s about friggin’ time!

I’ve just been reminded of Stephen King’s 1987 book Misery. It’s about a bestselling author who wants to give up writing ‘popular’ fiction & write a ‘serious’ book so he can win a literary prize. He gets sequestered & tortured by one of his fans. There are a lot of lessons about fiction & the act of reading fiction to be learned from Misery. For anybody interested, I mean.

djones - 28 February 2007 01:54 PM

I’ve just been reminded of Stephen King’s 1987 book Misery. It’s about a bestselling author who wants to give up writing ‘popular’ fiction & write a ‘serious’ book so he can win a literary prize. He gets sequestered & tortured by one of his fans. There are a lot of lessons about fiction & the act of reading fiction to be learned from Misery. For anybody interested, I mean.

Yeah, this is something Stephen King talks about, and writes about, fairly often. I think the new one, Lisey’s Story has some of that, too.

In 2003 Stephen King won a National Book Award “Distinguished Contribution to American Letters Award,” and his acceptance speech is pretty much all about this. It’s worth reading, I think. He mentions Elmore Leonard:

http://www.nationalbook.org/nbaacceptspeech_sking.html

And really, isn’t it time Elmore Leonard won this Distinguished Contribution Award?