Well, if you are Larry McMurtry, then 14 vintage manual typewriters is the correct answer. That is how many he owned when he left the Western literary world a touch darker in March 2021. His estate was later sold via auction in 2023 in the Lonestar state of Texas.

He wrote all of his 46 novels and screenplays on the Swiss-manufactured Hermes typewriters he loved. As a fellow writer, I understand the draw of the clickety-clack of typewriter keys striking home as I work.

Lonesome Dove and Brokeback Mountain might be why Larry McMurtry is so well known today when the literary world has fallen so far behind Hollywood in pop culture. Yet it is the draw of the well-told narrative that keeps people turning pages or waiting out commercials.

What does this have to do with typewriters? Well, for many of us writers, the dings, pokes, and pop-ups are the antithesis of our writing. For Larry, the dusty tumbleweed-strewn old west and lonely mountain tops might never have been realized if not for the click clackity click of typewriter keys.

Among his other possessions were a large collection of animal skulls. The rhinoceros skull was one of the large draws for the lookie-loos at the auction, which was held online and in person, along with his personal copies of his books. His typewriters reportedly sold for over $37k.

Lonesome Dove was originally a short screenplay, and John Wayne was going to play Woodrow Call. But for reasons we can only guess, the Duke passed, and Lonesome Dove languished on a shelf for fifteen long years until it was saved by a bus.

Yup. A bus inspired Larry McMurtry to dust off his screenplay, originally titled Streets of Laredo, and rewrite it as a longer novel. The bus had Lonesome Dove Baptist Church painted on it.

Charles Bronson was also cast in the miniseries but had to back out. Considering the fact that both Tommy Lee Jones and Robert Duvall got inducted into the Texas Rangers (on an honorary basis), it had to hurt to have missed the chance to be part of the historic Lonesome Dove.

It was after heart surgery in 1991 and was feeling depressed and lost that he wrote the novel Streets of Laredo. Unlike so many of us, he did not write at a desk but at the kitchen counter. This reportedly was paramount in his recovery.

The Contrabando image you see here has been used in multiple movie sets over the years and is located in Big Bend Ranch State Park. One of the films that used this location was Streets of Laredo by Larry McMurtry.

So, what is the point of these fun facts about amazing writer Larry McMurtry, Lonesome Dove, and Hermes typewriters?

The point is that writers write. The good, the bad, the ugly, the sleepy. If they are a writer, they all write, maybe not on the latest PC, Mac, or even with electricity, but on what works for them. The desk or kitchen counter doesn't matter. What matters is that every day, you write something. Well, if you are a writer anyway.

Larry McMurtry once said that he ignored holidays, weekends, and weekdays because no matter what day it was, he knew he was going to write five pages. Later, that increased to ten pages. But at the end of the day, those pages were written. And no one can deny that Larry McMurtry was every inch a writer.

McMurtry grew up on a ranch in Texas. That shaped much of his fiction but did not define or limit it. Here is a quote by Larry that sheds more light on his thoughts and writing.

“I have had the same postal box for sixty-seven years. My family's first phone number in Archer City was 9. On the ranch, we still fed cattle out of a wagon. I write on a typewriter. I come not just from a different time but from a different era." Larry McMurtry.

When you sit down to write what are you thinking about?

So many authors run around complaining about writer's block. "I sit down at my new Mac Book Pro with this Ram, that speed, and that thingy mabob. And no words come out.”

Well, if I was busy thinking about my new shiny toy and all it could do that had little to do with writing, I think I would struggle to type anything at all. For instance, my cell phone has rung three times since I started this blog, and every time when I said, I love you, Mom, I know, Mom, talk to you soon, Mom my mind was so far removed from my writing I wasted another ten minutes finding my place again.

Don't get me wrong, I love my mom, but distractions cost words and words how a writer lives or at least succeeds. I write on several different machines depending on the location, what I am writing, and when I am writing it.

For me, I always have a pen or a pencil in my shirt pocket. Thank goodness Carhartt has amazing shirt pockets. I abuse them all the time. When I have an idea or realize what is missing from a scene, I need to write it down.

It doesn't matter if I am in the middle of rush hour traffic, chasing goats out of my moms prized flowers or making love to my fiancé, and yes that has happened. I might still have the bruise where she let me know what she thought of my note-taking at the wrong moment.

The thing is, writing is about telling a story. It should not be about the computer, pen, or typewriter we use. It should be about what works for us as writers to get the words past all the bs that clutters up the rest of our lives.

You know, things like real jobs, wives, husbands, kids, hobbies, meals, bathing, etc. And at the end of the day for many of us writing on a manual typewriter simply is a way of shutting off the world of distractions and allowing us to commune with the clickety clackety world or words on paper…

How many typewriters does it take to write great Western novels?