Daniel Woodrell, author of such popular books as “Winter’s Bone,” “Tomato Red,” and “Give Us a Kiss,” died of pancreatic cancer on Friday, November 28, his wife Katie Estill-Woodrell confirmed. He was 72 years old.
Born in Springfield, Missouri, Woodrell dropped out of high school and joined the Marines. She then attended the University of Kansas and earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. Many of his books were about small-town criminals and detectives, and his style gave rise to the term “country noir.”
He wrote his first book, Under the Bright Lights. This is the first in a trilogy that follows bayou cop Rene Shade as she solves murders and mysteries across Louisiana. Woodrell wrote several books in the ’80s, including “Woe to Live On” and “Muscle for the Wing.” His early works followed the lives of the residents of St. Bruno, a fictional town on the Louisiana bayou.
Woodrell’s breakthrough came in 1996 with the release of “Give Us a Kiss.” This novel tells the story of Doyle Redmond, a crime novelist who leaves California, returns to his hometown of the Ozarks, and begins a journey to find his missing brother Smoke. After writing “Give Us a Kiss,” Woodrell began to shift his focus to the fictional town of West Table, which serves as a fictionalized version of his hometown of West Plains. He wrote “The Death of Sweet Mister” shortly thereafter.
After seeing a young woman shopping with her children, Woodrell began writing Winter’s Bone, a novel about a teenage girl named Lee Dolly who must search for her missing father in the Missouri Ozarks in order to lift her family out of poverty before they become homeless. The novel was made into a film starring Jennifer Lawrence and John Hawkes. Two of Woodrell’s previous films, “Ride with the Devil” and “Tomato Red,” were also made into films. Woodrell published The Outlaw Album and The Maid’s Version in 2011 and 2013.
He is survived by his wife, Katie;
