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Survival Kit

Sunday, September 14, 2003
  • Elmore Leonard

    Elmore Leonard has written over 3 dozen crime novels (Glitz, Get Shorty, Cuba Libre, Out of Sight, Pagan Babies and Tishomingo Blues to name just a few) which examine, in meticulous detail, the seamy underside of American cities like Los Angeles, Miami and Detroit. They’re peopled with offbeat characters: cops, millionaires, stuntmen, cowboys, loan sharks, drug dealers, pimps and hookers. It makes me wonder what kind of underworld he’ll discover in the wilds of Montana, or on a desert island. Let’s see what he’s packed in his survival kit to protect him from the treacherous wildlife he’ll undoubtedly encounter there.

His List:
1. Six Pilot pens: Precise V7 fine
2. Paper: 3000 buff-colored unlined sheets in 50 pads
3. Music: Count Basie and Frank Sinatra
4. Film: Ken Burns’ Civil War
5. Film: Ken Burns’ History of Jazz
6. John O’Hara’s short stories
7. Feature Films: The Passenger, All That Jazz, Last of the Mohicans
8. Aspirin-free Excedrin