University Libraries is showcasing its vast holdings of Elmore Leonard material in its fall 2025 exhibit, “’The bad guys are the fun guys’: Celebrating 100 years of Elmore Leonard”. The exhibit features items from the Elmore Leonard Archive housed in the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections at University Libraries and celebrates the 100th Anniversary of Leonard’s birth.
Leonard, born on October 11th, 1925, was one of the most celebrated crime fiction authors of the 20th century, and commanded major influence and impact over the culture of 20th century crime fiction.
The Leonard Archive came to the Irvin Department in October of 2014, making the University home to the premiere collection of Leonard’s work and personal materials. The complete archive includes more than 450 drafts of manuscripts, short stories and screenplays as well as some of Leonard’s ephemera like his Hawaiian shirts and even a couple of his director’s chairs.
“There’s nowhere better to study Elmore Leonard than here,” says Michael Weisenburg, Director of the Irvin Department of Rare Books and Special Collections and curator of the exhibit.
Weisenburg’s aim for the exhibit is to craft a comprehensive view into Leonard’s life and work, pulling from behind-the-scenes items as well as first editions of his works. The exhibit will feature elements from every corner of the archive, from original pulps to business letters and unpublished manuscripts.
Leonard, often called “The Dickens of Detroit,” simultaneously worked both in Hollywood and publishing, which was rare among other authors or producers at the time. Drafts of various films, film treatments and proposals will be on display alongside Leonard’s popular written works, as well as treatments that never made it to the screen but were made into novels instead.
Visitors to the exhibit, which is free of charge and open to the public, will get an exclusive peek into Leonard’s life in Hollywood, with letters to people like Bruce Willis and John Grisham on display. The exhibit lifts the curtain behind processes of working in Hollywood, even showing evidence of machinations of casting with big name actors and actresses who were just at the start of their career.
Weisenburg hopes the range of items on display will spur more of an academic interest in using the Leonard material to study the history of crime fiction both in written works and Hollywood. “Even if you’ve never read any Elmore Leonard, you can come to the exhibit and learn something new and interesting about crime fiction and popular culture,” says Weisenburg.
The exhibit runs from August of 2025 to mid-January of 2026. More information about parking and location can be found here.