Entertainment

Just one definition of intimacy, according to the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, is "the quality of being comfortable, warm or familiar." At the Nasher Sculpture Center, they get it when it comes to intimacy.

Perhaps they understand that society is now so crowded, so rootless and impersonal, that audiences don't just crave it, they demand it.

So, the museum deserves a big standing O for its Nasher Salon Lecture Series, which has managed to import luminaries such as actors Danny Glover and Olympia Dukakis, composer Philip Glass, architect Thom Mayne and author John Updike to the 200-seat venue.

But the salon may have scored its biggest hit yet with the July 17 appearance of Pulitzer Prize-winning author Larry McMurtry, who shared the stage with writing partner and friend Diana Ossana. The two have collaborated on novels and screenplays, and in 2006, they won the Oscar for best adapted screenplay for bringing to film Brokeback Mountain, based on Annie Proulx's amazing short story.

Back in July, Jane Offenbach, director of external affairs at the Nasher, said the demand for McMurtry-Ossana was such that it "could have sold out Texas Stadium twice." OK, she exaggerated. But, she clarified last week, the Nasher could have sold out the Meyerson.

Ah, but that would have robbed the evening of the quality that made it so special. Ms. Ossana said later that even she was surprised by the usually reticent Mr. McMurtry being as candid as he was in the comfort of the Nasher Salon.

The series began in 2005 and has become increasingly successful, so much so, says Ms. Offenbach, that its speakers "are received extraordinarily well and sell out very quickly. We wish we could accommodate more people. I have even investigated doing remote broadcasts. The lovely part of our series, that which makes it different, is that it is so intimate, even in the back row."

Mr. Updike agreed to a book signing, Mr. Glass actually performed, and chef Wolfgang Puck, next up on the calendar, will cook onstage.

When it comes to cooking, Mr. McMurtry and Ms. Ossana have shared their own unforgettable recipes, albeit those of the literary kind.

The pair met in a now-defunct catfish restaurant in Tucson, Ariz., where Ms. Ossana lives. But the collaboration that sprang from that impromptu meeting became even more pronounced after Mr. McMurtry's quadruple-bypass surgery in late 1991. Together, they have written the novels Pretty Boy Floyd and Zeke and Ned and the screenplay of Brokeback Mountain, which Ms. Ossana also produced.

"We thought he would be there three days," Ms. Ossana said of her houseguest. "But he stayed almost three years."

"I was," said Mr. McMurtry, "very badly wounded."

Listeners at the Nasher were treated to a summary of how Brokeback Mountain evolved from short story to script to Oscar-winning movie, which never would have happened without Ms. Ossana having championed the project. When Ms. Ossana read Ms. Proulx's short story in The New Yorker, she was so moved by it that it flooded her mind with questions. How would the homosexuality of the male leads affect their wives, their children? Enter Mr. McMurtry, who has written as well about women as any male author ever has.

Mr. McMurtry once referred to his native Archer City as "the bookless part of a bookless state." So, perhaps we all owe a debt of gratitude to Robert Hilburn, who as a 19-year-old headed to World War II and stopped off in rural Texas to give his much younger cousin his prized collection of children's books. "That," said Mr. McMurtry, "was a defining moment in my life."

It led, of course, to a lifelong obsession with books, 350,000 of which now line shelves in the Booked Up storefronts of Archer City (population 1,848). "The neighbors aren't crazy about those books," Mr. McMurtry said. "But there's not much I can do about it. They're passive – they're not attacking anybody. And yet, the neighbors feel a certain threat."

Mr. McMurtry once roundly criticized Texas authors, including himself, in a controversial address to the Texas Institute. He still contends that not a single great book has emerged from the American West, including his own Pulitzer Prize-winning Lonesome Dove. At best, he said, he's a "minor regional novelist."

But he's our minor regional novelist, and for a few lovely moments, thanks to the Nasher, we all had the feeling we knew him. Plan your life

Celebrity chef Wolfgang Puck will be the next featured guest at the Nasher Salon 2008 Lecture Series, which takes place in Nasher Hall, where he will provide a cooking demonstration. Tickets are $40 for members, $45 for nonmembers. 2001 Flora St. 214-242-5100, www.nasher sculpturecenter.org.

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