Clancy Carlile

Clancy Carlile (January 18, 1930 – June 4, 1998)^[1] was an American novelist and screenwriter of Cherokee descent. He is perhaps best known for his 1980 novel Honkytonk Man, made into a film by Clint Eastwood.

Early years

Carlile was born in the Choctaw Nation's tribal jurisdictional area in Oklahoma, and his father was Cherokee. He had an erratic childhood,^[2] and moved to Texas at a young age. Carlile was a high school drop-out.^[3] He worked as a cotton picker until his family moved to California to pick fruit. He served in the army during the Korean War and after being discharged, obtained a master's degree at San Francisco State University.^[4]

Career

Carlile began writing, and penned his first novel, presumably As I Was Young and Easy (1958) in just 17 days. This was followed by Spore 7 (1979). In Honkytonk Man (1980), the tale of the life and death of a country singer which was made into a film by Clint Eastwood in which Eastwood also starred,^[4] Carlile wrote both the novel and the screenplay.^[5] His final novel, Children of the Dust (1995), about the settling of Oklahoma, was made into a CBS mini-series featuring Sidney Poitier. This novel is related to the author's heritage, being from the Oklahoma Territory. The story is set in the late 1880s, with Gypsy Smith (Poitier) being a gunslinger of African American and Cherokee descent who helps African American homesteaders settle the territory under the specter of white people. The novel, The Paris Pilgrims, regarding a mix of memoirs, biographies and fiction^[6] of famous American expatriates in 1920s Paris,^[3] was published posthumously in 1999.

Personal life

Carlile spent much of his later life in Austin, Texas where he had a writing fellowship at the University of Texas.^[3] Carlile had at least one child, a son, Steven, and four grandchildren.^[4] He died in Austin from cancer at the age of 68 on June 4, 1998.^[4]

References