Archer City is the hometown of novelist Larry McMurtry

Larry McMurtry grew up in Archer City and graduated from Archer City High School in 1954. His 1966 novel The Last Picture Show drew straight from the town and its people. The 1971 movie, directed by Peter Bogdanovich, was filmed on location in Archer City. It earned eight Academy Award nominations and won two. The Texas State Historical Association lists McMurtry as one of two nationally known fiction writers from Archer County, along with Benjamin Capps.

McMurtry later brought a large part of his used-book stock to Archer City. He bought several empty buildings near the old courthouse square and opened Booked Up, a used-book store. At its peak, Booked Up held an estimated 450,000 volumes. He married his wife Norma Faye Haxby Kesey at the Booked Up store in 2011.

The Archer County Courthouse is part of this history too. It was built in 1891 and remodeled in 1926. The courthouse was later restored to its 1926 look through the Texas Historic Courthouse Preservation Program. A rededication ceremony was held on May 12, 2005. The Texas Historical Commission keeps a recorded historical marker for the building.