Elmer Kelton

Sink into the easy Texas drawl of celebrated Western novelist Elmer Kelton, the son of a Texas cowboy and a five-time Spur award winner. In this live workshop recording he'll share insights about writing in a genre that doesn't always receive the respect it's due.

Rancher Blair Bishop of Two Forks, Texas, has too many enemies...and they are closing in on him. Macy Modock, whom Bishop sent to prison 10 years ago, is out of the hoosegow. Modock is returning to Two Forks along with his sidekick, who is known to be a mean gunman. Also arrayed against Bishop...

Donovan: Donovan was supposed to be dead. The town of Dry Fork, southern Texas, had buried him years before when Uncle Joe Vickers had fired off both barrels of a shotgun into the vicious outlaw's face as he was escaping from jail. Now, Uncle Joe has been shot - in just the same way. And Judge...

As he flees to the sanctuary of Mexico, Chacho Fernandez is unaware of the fuel he has added to the already simmering racial hatreds in and around the quiet town of Domingo, Texas. Through events set in motion by a misunderstanding, Chacho becomes a folk hero to his people and a dangerous...

The Buckskin Line tells of Texas' chaotic early years, when a ragtag group of irregular volunteers fought to defend the far edges of settlement from incursion by Indians and frontier outlaws. In time, they would become known as the Texas Rangers. This is a story of the early days when... An...

In the early days of the Texas panhandle, starting a new life is hard - but keeping it is even harder. Espy Norwood is a troubleshooter who's got troubles of his own, and more troubles find him when he lands a job on a ranch on the Texas plains. Bitter landowners plot against him, determined...

Joe Pepper is a Texas badman with quite a past. In fact, there isn't much that Joe hasn't done in his 40 years of living on both sides of the Texas law - except face the hangman. Now, convicted of murder, Joe is about to get that privilege. But, before he goes, Joe has a few things he wants to...

Six-time Spur Award winner Elmer Kelton was named the greatest Western author of all time by the Western Writers of America. In this novel, 18-year-old farmer Trey McLean aspires to be a cattle rancher. He leaves East Texas with four cows and heads west, but a corrupt sheriff quickly steals the...

In the 1870s, buffalo hunters moved onto the High Plains of Texas. The Plains Indians watched hunters slaughter the animals that gave them shelter and clothing, food, and weapons. The battles at and near the ruins of a trading fort, Adobe Walls, became symbolic of the struggles between hunters...

Elmer Kelton, author of over a dozen popular westerns, was named the Greatest Western Writer of All Time by the Western Writers of America. He has won multiple Golden Spur Awards. The Smiling Country, filled with pathos and humor, is set in the last days of the Old West. Hewey Calloway may be...

When former cattle man Dundee wanders into the town of Titusville, he's broke, tired and itching for a fight. Instead, he gets a job offer...from none other than the top man in town, John Titus. Titus recruits Dundee to find out who's rustling his extensive herd of cattle. But for Titus, it...

When Texas Ranger private Andy Pickard is assigned to help patrol the Texas-Mexico border country he rides directly into a deadly feud.

Winner of a record seven Spur Awards, Elmer Kelton pens fast-paced stories with well-developed characters and unbeatable excitement. In the midst of a long-standing family feud, three Rangers must fight to keep order in the tenuous state of post-Civil War Texas. Kelton's The Smiling Country is...

In Buffalo Wagons, Gage Jameson faces a bleak summer in 1873 as the once-great buffalo herds vanish from the Arkansas River. Desperate for a successful hunt, Jameson risks venturing south of the Cimarron into dangerous Comanche territory, where old hide hunters dare not tread. Immerse yourself...

The Time It Never Rained helped convince the Western Writers of America to declare seven-time Spur Award winner Elmer Kelton the greatest Western writer of all time. Forged from Kelton’s 1950s observations of drought-ravaged West Texas, this compelling novel tells the story of one rancher’s...

Chosen by his peers as the best Western writer of all time and honored with an unprecedented seven Spur Awards, Elmer Kelton is “one of the giants of the Western genre” (Booklist). In Other Men’s Horses, a young 1880s Texas Ranger must track down a fugitive who gunned down a notorious...

Elmer Kelton, beloved chronicler of the Old West and recipient of an unprecedented seven Spur Awards, recounts the story of Santa Anna's lesser known massacre through the eyes of a lone survivor. Even in his old age, Josh Buckalew sometimes awakens in a cold sweat as he relives those horrifying...

Long Way to Texas brings together three rare Kelton novels, all with Texas roots. In Joe Pepper, the titular character, while awaiting a hangman's noose, tells the story of how he discovered a propensity for violence while seeking revenge. The irony is that Joe's keen sense of justice puts him...

Here are 16 stories, where good meets bad, and everything in between, from the legendary author of the West, Elmer Kelton. Law of the Land chronicles some of his most exciting and dangerous tales of the Old West, collected together for the first time....

Seven-time Spur Award winner Elmer Kelton sets this "completely absorbing" prequel to his award-winning classics The Good Old Boys and The Smiling Country in 1889 Texas. Hewey Calloway and his kid brother Walter head for West Texas - hoping to live their cowboy dream. But when Walter's crush on...