When Chad Kushins was just 15, he wrote to Elmore Leonard, his long-time hero, for the first time. Today, Kushins has completed his final letter to the renowned crime writer – the introduction to Leonard’s posthumous publication, a novella from 1970 hidden amid Leonard's work in the University of South Carolina's literary archives.
Kushins, now an author himself, had followed Leonard’s career since he was in grade school. On occasion, the two even interacted with each other’s work, Leonard allowing Kushins to read one of his unpublished pieces (now, “Sparks”) and lending advice to the young storyteller:
“Write every day,” Leonard wrote him, “whether you feel like it or not.”
Following the crime-author’s death in 2013, Kushins was distraught. Feeling sentimental, he sought solace in the inspiration that began it all: Leonard’s work. But a simple Google search would give Kushins more than comfort, it would give him the complete collection of the Elmore Leonard archives as well as a brand new biography to work on.
“I was just in an Elmore mood to celebrate that I had finished my own book,” Kushins said. "I couldn’t believe that the catalogue for USC had all this stuff. I went crazy. I knew I had to go (to Columbia).”
Shortly afterward, Kushins was on a plane.
Early on, Leonard was careful not to put his work in any single collection. But before his death, the crime writer chose the Irvine Special Collections and Archives at USC for a few special reasons, Kushins said.
“A couple of items emotionally moved him,” Kushins said. “You have Hemingway, Fitzgerald, these big names. But if you’re a crime writer, not everybody’s going to put you on the same shelf.”
But that is exactly what USC said it would do.
And somewhere between Hemingway, Fitzgerald and a number of other distinguished authors, as well as a massive collection of Leonard’s notes, was “Picket Line,” a prose piece of roughly 100 pages, untouched by critics, editors or the public.
Red Swarat, Kushins' research assistant, was given free reign one summer afternoon, having completed her notes on Marguerite Harper, Leonard’s former literary agent, when she happened upon the novella.
“I noticed that it said there was a book deal, and I was like, I wonder if Chad knows about this one,” Swarat said.
Swarat said Kushins simply scanned the documents she had found and with quick certainty, told her, “'You found a new book. I haven’t read this one.'”
Peter Leonard, the writer's eldest son and a novelist himself, was the biographer’s first call.
“'I have a surprise for you,'” Kushins said.
This month, after two and a half years of work on Leonard’s biography, “Cooler than Cool,” Kushins attended a book signing and literary festival in the Irvine Special Collections and Archives at USC where he compiled much of the timeline for Leonard’s life.
“It was amazing that his whole life story was here, and for all these little puzzle pieces to fit together so personally,” Kushins said. In front of him sat a roomful of Leonard’s family, friends and devoted readers.
It was there, on Sept. 10, accompanied by both Peter and Bill Leonard, Kushins announced the upcoming release of “Picket Line” on Sept. 30, 55 years after it was written.
The Leonard family, who now own the rights to the novella, proposed that Kushins write the introduction, to which he gave an easy answer.
“It is an honor to be a part of his work posthumously,” Kushins said later. "He was my hero."
For the first time, Kushins and Leonard finally worked together and now, they share a place on the shelf.
This story was filed as part of an editorial partnership between South Carolina Public Radio and the University of South Carolina’s Carolina News and Reporter. You can learn more about the Carolina News and Reporter here.
