Skip to main content
PBS logo
 
 

Search - List of Books by Joe R. Lansdale

Joe R. Lansdale (born October 28, 1951) is an American author and martial-arts expert. He has written novels and stories in many genres, including Western, horror, science fiction, mystery, and suspense. He has also written for comics as well as The Animated Series.

Frequent features of Lansdale's writing are usually deeply ironic, strange or absurd situations or characters, such as Elvis and JFK battling a soul-sucking Ancient Egyptian mummy in a nursing home (the plot of his Bram Stoker Award-nominated novella, "Bubba Ho-Tep," which was made into a movie by Don Coscarelli). He is the winner of the British Fantasy Award, the American Horror Award, the Edgar Award, and seven Bram Stoker Awards. The World Horror Convention recently made him the recipient of the 2007 Grand Master Award for contributions to the field of Horror fiction. [1]

He is perhaps best known for his "Hap and Leonard" series of novels which feature two friends, Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, who live in the town of Laborde, Texas and find themselves solving a variety of often unpleasant crimes. The characters themselves are an unlikely pairing; Hap is a white working class laborer in his mid forties, and Leonard is a gay black man. Both of them are accomplished fighters, and the stories (told from Hap's narrative point of view) feature a great deal of violence, profanity and sex. Lansdale paints a picture of East Texas which is essentially "good" but blighted by racism, ignorance, urban and rural deprivation and corruption in public officials. Some of the subject matter is extremely dark, and has included pedophilia and anti-gay violence. The novels are characterised by sharp humour and "wisecracking" dialogue.

Lansdale, who was born in Gladewater, Texas, now lives in Nacogdoches and is the writer in residence at Stephen F. Austin State University. He also teaches at his own Shen Chuan martial arts school and is a member of the Martial Arts Hall of Fame.

Film and Television   more

Awards   more

Bibliography   more

This author page uses material from the Wikipedia article "Joe R. Lansdale", which is released under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share-Alike License 3.0
Total Books: 414
Captains Outrageous
2009 - Captains Outrageous [Hap and Leonard, Bk 6] (Paperback)Paperback
ISBN-13: 9780307455529
ISBN-10: 0307455521
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 6

A Fine Dark Line
2003 - A Fine Dark Line (Hardcover)Paperback, Hardcover, Audio Cassette, Audio CD
ISBN-13: 9780892967292
ISBN-10: 0892967293
Genres: Literature & Fiction, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense
  • Currently 3.9/5 Stars.
 17