Touchstones

A touchstone is “a standard or criterion by which something is judged or recognized.”  In The Dutch Forum, the term means a connection that exists in Elmore’s work across the boundaries of a single work.  A touchstone may be a character, a place, a line of dialogue; basically the evolution of the writer’s thought process.

Touchstones were started as a thread suggested by Joel Lyczak in 2002:

By Joel Lyczak on Wednesday, August 14, 2002 - 04:30 pm:
An idea for an addition to the web-site.
Call it: TOUCHSTONES;

A person, event, or something that links one Leonard novel with another

.

Click here to read all 212 posts in the Touchstones Archives which date from August 14, 2002 to November 18, 2004.  They make fascinating reading.  When you have thoroughly examined the Archive, add your new Touchstone to this thread.

Mr. Sutter,

Thanks for bringing back the Touchstones.  I have been away for the past couple years/  I will retire very soon after 20+ years in the Army National Guard.  I am back teaching middle school in LA.  It is good to be home.

Let’s start real easy.  We haven’t done Touchstones for THE HOT KID - UP IN HONEY’S ROOM.

UP IN HONEY’S ROOM - Carl Webster
COMFORT TO THE ENEMY - Carl Webster
THE HOT KID - Carl Webster
“Showdown at Checotah” - Carlos Webster
“Louly and Pretty Boy” - Carlos Webster
“Tenkiller” - Ben Webster
CUBA LIBRE - Virgil Webster

CUBA LIBRE could open up about a dozen Touchstones that could lead to every book.  I have an old document that I wrote on another computer (in storage) that Touchstones every book he has ever written.  I tried to make them as difficult as possible—not like above.  I will have to try and find it.

The called Robb the Touchstone Master.  Glad he’s back in one piece.  It’s fun to find bits and pieces of Elmore’s process scattered about.  The real touchstones are in his head, from his life.  He remembers the most obscure little touch.  For example, names.  Schrenk, used as Jurgen’s last name in Comfort to the Enemy and Up in Honey’s Room is his maternal grandmother’s maiden name.  He picks away at reality for a natural prose.

Came to the site to ask this question but thought it might also be a “touchstone”. I laugh to myself every time I read a new Leonard book and someone is drinking “bourbon on the rocks with a teaspon of sugar”. I wondered if that was Mr. Leonard’s favorite cocktail?

Welcome to the Forum.  Elmore does not drink, but his characters do. Boy do they ever.  I’ll ask him where that particular drink came from and let you know. 

Anybody want to add to the list of drinks?  There are many.

No drinks to report, but I got through the first 25 Touchstones so far and just wanted to quote Robb here for this gem:

By Robb on Monday, September 16, 2002 - 07:28 pm:
I am about the only one doing these.

“Maximum Bob” has one of my favorite Touchstones.

Elvin Crowe’s thoughts are about reading a western in prison. He is about to go into a hair salon when he thinks about the western and what happens in a barbershop. He is thinking about the first chapter in Mr. Leonard’s first novel, “The Bounty Hunters”.

Things turn out a lot different in “Maximum Bob”.

Maximum Bob was the last EL book I read and enjoyed it tremendously!  Slowly working through ‘The Complete Western Stories’ now.

Carney,

Have you read Mr. Leonard’s first novel, THE BOUNTY HUNTERS?  The first chapter is classic.  You will love the difference between MAXIMUM BOB.

The Salty Dogs in Swag are great. Lots of drinking in those books, for sure, but the descriptions of being an alcoholic in Unknown Man #89 is some of the best writing ever, gets you right inside those characters.

Lots of great writing on drinking, smoking, just about any of our nasty social habits.  He gets it.

Robb - 17 December 2006 04:22 AM

Carney,

Have you read Mr. Leonard’s first novel, THE BOUNTY HUNTERS?  The first chapter is classic.  You will love the difference between MAXIMUM BOB.

Yeah, I read Bounty Hunters in a series of 3 western novels I purchased just before reading Maximum Bob.  Recognized that scene right away.  Full circle Elmore with a cruel twist of turning tables.

How’s that for a drink reference? 

hardly a drink reference in touchstones but the battle with pleasure and pain goes on.
Just finished reading all the previous touchstones and humorous insights everywhere, thanks for bringing it back, part of the fun is connecting it all and imagining how EL got it. here’s a couple more
Red Bowers Chev dealership on Telegraph mentioned in Swag & City Primeval, there is R.D Bowers,
Lt. Bowers is called “Red” by Dave Flynn during their adventures in The Bounty Hunters, I can imagine Dutch in the dealership one day shopping for a new car and seeing an item on the history of R.D Red Bowers hanging on the wall, wheels turning.
The Playmate of the Month October 1966 was a 17 year old blond by the name of Linda Moon, born in Michigan, moved to California, was featured in film & TV as Linda Moon Redfern, played native women roles from 1971 to 1982 and by virtue of her French American and Cherokee blood could be related to Armand Degas The Blackbird. What was 41 year old EL looking at back then, did he meet this girl at some point in his travels? Hmmmmm I would attach the centrefold, ........ now….......

That is a great touchstone, son slater.

It’s not the same guy, but the same name. In Freaky Deaky, Greta has a brother that the family always called Robert Taylor. “Her sister Camille they called Lily, but they called her brother Robert Taylor, always Robert Taylor. That was strange, wasn’t it?”

And, of course, in Tishomingo Blues, there’s another Robert Taylor.

Thank you Robb
High praise coming from you

Flash New EL article

http://www.helium.com/tm/128482/notion-world-needs-president

I just read the touchstone posts…always enjoyed when a character from another book would show up..i want to ask him/her…hey wait a minuet…dont go anywhere…tell me where ya been..what have ya been doing?...

When I first found out about the release of Freaky Deaky..it brought me back to Stick…where Cornell and Mrs. Stam are performing a ritual and Cornell refers to part of the ritual..The Freaky Deaky

How about a few from the first chapter of UP IN HONEY’S ROOM?

SWAG:  Honey works at Hudson’s, the store that was robbed in SWAG.

MOONSHINE WAR:  Harlan County is where Honey’s sister-in-law lives.  Honey’s brother (former moonshiner), Darcy, is in prison.
I wonder if he worked for Son Martin?

Obviously Harlan County has Touchstones with THE HUNTED, PRONTO, RIDING THE RAP, “Fire In The Hole”, and many others because many characters have lived there.

The Webster Saga contiues. . .

Again, how does he make it look so easy?  He is the Dickens of Detroit.  He can put more information into the smallest amount of writing than it should be possible.  Dickens couldn’t do that.  He isn’t the Dickens of Detroit.  He is an Ameican Master.  Elmore Leonard, American Writer.