“Larry McMurtry’s Famous Bookstore Reopens as a Literary Center”
From an article published April 12, 2025 in Texas Highways:
“A Dallas-based writer and professor, George Getschow is working to preserve what was McMurtry’s self-proclaimed 'temple of books'—his famous storefront Booked Up in Archer City, Texas. McMurtry acquired all the volumes inside the shop, and his touch is obvious. Some copies are hand-marked for sale or noted with comments; others are knocked down in cost for being 'too sentimental' or repriced if McMurtry changed his opinion of the book after finishing it. The shop is where he married Faye Kesey, widow of writer Ken Kesey, and the place where he directed his ashes be kept. He used the store to redefine the 'bookless' town he grew up in and build a tradition of literary appreciation.
“Getschow spent some 15 years in and out of that bookshop, working and socializing with McMurtry, who died in 2021. After McMurtry’s death in 2021, there was no one to operate Booked Up, and the store closed its doors seemingly for good. But on March 8, after months of planning and de-cluttering, the building reopened as something new: the Larry McMurtry Literary Center. . .” [Excerpt from the article by Alice Scott at TexasHighways.com]
Larry McMurtry is most often associated with Texas, but he lived in the Washington, D.C. area for many years where he operated a bookshop in Georgetown from the early '70s onward. That's where I met him as I often visited "Booked Up," his shop on 31st and M Streets, NW.
By 1989, Larry McMurtry was back on the street where he started in Archer City, Texas, just down the road from the white frame house where he grew up. There, he collected over 450,000 books in four "Booked Up" stores. He passed away in March 2021, at the age of 84, but "Booked Up" remains, thanks to old friends like George Getschow who “just want to keep his flame burning.” Also remaining are novels such as "Lonesome Dove," "The Last Picture Show", "Terms of Endearment," "Leaving Cheyenne," "Comanche Moon," "Streets of Laredo," and dozens of his screenplays for motion pictures and television series.
“Larry McMurtry’s Famous Bookstore Reopens as a Literary Center”
From an article published April 12, 2025 in Texas Highways:
“A Dallas-based writer and professor, George Getschow is working to preserve what was McMurtry’s self-proclaimed 'temple of books'—his famous storefront Booked Up in Archer City, Texas. McMurtry acquired all the volumes inside the shop, and his touch is obvious. Some copies are hand-marked for sale or noted with comments; others are knocked down in cost for being 'too sentimental' or repriced if McMurtry changed his opinion of the book after finishing it. The shop is where he married Faye Kesey, widow of writer Ken Kesey, and the place where he directed his ashes be kept. He used the store to redefine the 'bookless' town he grew up in and build a tradition of literary appreciation.
“Getschow spent some 15 years in and out of that bookshop, working and socializing with McMurtry, who died in 2021. After McMurtry’s death in 2021, there was no one to operate Booked Up, and the store closed its doors seemingly for good. But on March 8, after months of planning and de-cluttering, the building reopened as something new: the Larry McMurtry Literary Center. . .” [Excerpt from the article by Alice Scott at TexasHighways.com]
Larry McMurtry is most often associated with Texas, but he lived in the Washington, D.C. area for many years where he operated a bookshop in Georgetown from the early '70s onward. That's where I met him as I often visited "Booked Up," his shop on 31st and M Streets, NW.
By 1989, Larry McMurtry was back on the street where he started in Archer City, Texas, just down the road from the white frame house where he grew up. There, he collected over 450,000 books in four "Booked Up" stores. He passed away in March 2021, at the age of 84, but "Booked Up" remains, thanks to old friends like George Getschow who “just want to keep his flame burning.” Also remaining are novels such as "Lonesome Dove," "The Last Picture Show", "Terms of Endearment," "Leaving Cheyenne," "Comanche Moon," "Streets of Laredo," and dozens of his screenplays for motion pictures and television series.