To give McMurtry is due -- he's written some of the finest modern western books around. Last Picture Show and Horseman, Pass By (made into the movie Hud w/Paul Newman). he also wrote Terms of Endearment (also made into a movie) and All My Friends Are Going to Be Strangers.
Don't forget "Lonesome Dove"
I had the smiley because it was meant sort of tongue-in-cheek. That said, the man has gone around the bend. I've read interviews with him long before he was involved with Brokeback, and he's sort of a jerk. During the last election, he was saying how ashamed he was that George Bush is associated with Texas. And Lonesome Dove is not so impressive after you read Andy Adams' Log of a Cowboy and any biography on Charles Goodnight and see how unoriginal the McMurtry work really was.