Lonesome Dove

FEBRUARY 6—AUGUST 31, 1999
LONESOME DOVE: The Making of a Modern Classis
SOUTHWESTERN WRITERS COLLECTION

A display of memorabilia from the classic TV miniseries Lonesome Dove will be exhibited at the Southwestern Writers Collection at Texas State University-San Marcos from from February 5 through June 1, 1999. The Collection, founded in 1986, holds the complete Lonesome Dove miniseries archive, including everything from the original typescript of Larry McMurtry's "Streets of Laredo"—the early scenario he eventually reworked as the novel, to Bill Wittliff's many drafts of the Lonesome Dove teleplay, to the costumes worn by Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones in their legendary performances as Gus and Call.

"During the past ten years Lonesome Dove has become a classic in television history and has endured in the hearts of the American public," says Southwestern Writers Collection Curator Connie Todd. "We think this special exhibit is absolutely the best way to celebrate the remarkable accomplishments of the film."

The Lonesome Dove materials were donated through the efforts of Bill and Sally Wittliff, who are also the founding donors of the Southwestern Writers Collection and Wittliff Gallery of Southwestern & Mexican Photography. The Lonesome Dove archives contain a complete record of the miniseries, including props, costumes, set designs, photographs, production notes, screenplay drafts, and hundreds of hours of film "dailies."

Bill Wittliff, who wrote the screenplay adaptation of McMurtry's novel and was the executive producer of the film, has been described as a "Renaissance hombre." Wittliff, who has long been considered an accomplished photographer, created a series of transcendent images from the set of Lonesome Dove. The photographs, which are part of Texas State's permanent collection, have been widely exhibited and were recently featured in Texas Monthly, which called the images "landscapes of Texas myth...[that] whisk us back not just to 1988 but to the late 1870s."