Publication Order of Frank Ryan and Ernest Stickley Books
Swag / Ryan’s Rules
1976
Stick
1983
Publication Order of Ordell Robbie and Louis Gara Books
The Switch
1978
Rum Punch
1992
Publication Order of Chili Palmer Books
Get Shorty
1990
Be Cool
1999
Publication Order of Raylan Givens Books
Pronto
1993
Riding the Rap
1995
Fire in the Hole
2001
Raylan
2012
Publication Order of Jack Foley Books
Out of Sight
1996
Road Dogs
2009
Publication Order of Carl Webster Books
The Hot Kid
2005
Up in Honey’s Room
2007
Comfort to the Enemy and Other Carl Webster Stories
2009
Publication Order of Standalone Novels
The Bounty Hunters
1953
The Law at Randado
1954
Escape from Five Shadows
1956
Last Stand at Saber River
1959
Hombre
1961
The Moonshine War
1969
Valdez Is Coming
1970
Forty Lashes Less One
1972
Mr. Majestyk
1974
52 Pickup
1974
The Hunted
1977
Gunsights
1979
City Primeval
1980
Gold Coast
1980
Split Images
1981
Cat Chaser
1982
LaBrava
1983
Glitz
1985
Bandits
1987
Touch
1987
Freaky Deaky
1988
Killshot
1989
Maximum Bob
1991
Cuba Libre
1998
Pagan Babies
2000
Tishomingo Blues
2002
Mr. Paradise
2004
Djibouti
2010
Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas
Picket Line
2025
Publication Order of Short Story Collections
The Tonto Woman and Other Western Stories
1998
When the Women Come Out to Dance / Fire in the Hole
2002
The Complete Western Stories of Elmore Leonard
2004
Moment of Vengeance and Other Stories
2006
Blood Money and Other Stories
2006
Three-Ten to Yuma and Other Stories
2006
Trail of the Apache and Other Stories
2007
Charlie Martz and Other Stories
2015
Publication Order of Children’s Books
A Coyote’s in the House
2004
Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books
Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing
2007
About Elmore Leonard
Elmore Leonard (1925 to 2013) was an American novelist, short story writer and screenwriter who began with Westerns in the 1950s and went on to specialise in crime fiction and suspense thrillers. His best-known novels include “Hombre”, “Swag”, “LaBrava”, “Glitz”, “Get Shorty”, “Rum Punch” and “Out of Sight”, and many of them were adapted for film and television.
Leonard was born in New Orleans on 11 October 1925. His father worked as a site locator for General Motors, so the family moved often before settling in Detroit in 1934. He served for three years with the US Navy Seabees in the South Pacific, where he picked up the nickname “Dutch”, then graduated from the University of Detroit in 1950 with a degree in English and philosophy. He wrote advertising copy for the Campbell-Ewald agency while producing fiction on the side.
His first success was the short story “Trail of the Apache”, published by Argosy magazine in 1951, and his debut novel, “The Bounty Hunters”, followed in 1953. Five of his Westerns had been filmed by 1972, among them “3:10 to Yuma” and “Hombre”. He moved into crime with “The Big Bounce” in 1969, often setting his stories in Detroit or South Florida. “LaBrava” won the Edgar Award for best novel in 1984, and “Glitz” (1985) was his breakout, spending 16 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list.
Leonard never wrote a long series, but several characters return. Chili Palmer appears in “Get Shorty” and “Be Cool”, bank robber Jack Foley in “Out of Sight” and “Road Dogs”, and US Marshal Raylan Givens in “Pronto”, “Riding the Rap”, the story “Fire in the Hole” and “Raylan”. The Givens stories were the basis of the FX series “Justified” (2010 to 2015). Quentin Tarantino filmed “Rum Punch” as “Jackie Brown” (1997), and Steven Soderbergh directed “Out of Sight” (1998).
He received the Grand Master Award from the Mystery Writers of America in 1992 and the National Book Award Medal for Distinguished Contribution in 2012. “Raylan” (2012) was his final novel. Leonard died at his home in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan, on 20 August 2013 from complications of a stroke. Two books have appeared since: “Charlie Martz and Other Stories”, a collection of previously unpublished stories, and “Picket Line”, written in 1970 as the first act of an unfinished novel and published by Mariner Books in 2025.
