[McMURTRY, Larry (1936-2021), his copy]. PERCY, Walker (1916-1990). The Moviegoer. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1961. FIRST EDITION of the author?s rare first novel that won the National Book Award in 1962. In an interview with the Los Angeles Times (29 January 1989), McMurtry considered Percy ?one of [his] heroes? who spent 15 years just reading while he recovered from tuberculosis. McMurtry said of his hero that ?All those years, while his contemporaries were having their experiences, Walker Percy read and read. And out came ?The Moviegoer??. McMurtry?s advice to would-be novelists: ?If you want to be a writer, you read?.