Leonard, Elmore

The American author Elmore John Leonard, Jr. was born in New Orleans, but because his father worked for the automobile industry, the family often moved homes. They lived in Dallas, Oklahoma City and Memphis before finally settling in Detroit in 1934. Leonard graduated from the University of Detroit Jesuit High School in 1943, after which he did his military service in the Navy and was sent to the Pacific where he acquired his nickname, "Dutch" after the famous baseball player Emil "Dutch" Leonard. He returned to Detroit in 1946 where he read English, literature and philosophy at the University of Detroit, graduating in 1950. In 1949, he had begun to work as a copywriter at an advertising agency where he remained until 1961. He opened his own advertising agency 1963, but closed this unsuccessful venture in 1966 and became a full-time author.