Elmer Kelton

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 Texas backlands in 1885, 12-year-old Joey Shipman's father dies under mysterious circumstances, and the boy is forced to live with his stepmother and Blair Meacham, a hanger-on at the farm. After the death of a black farmhand and friend, and another "accident" that almost takes Joey's...

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...

From one of the West's greatest living storytellers, winner of numerous awards, including the Spur, the Golden Saddleman, and the Western Heritage Award, here is Elmer Kelton's magnificent new novel of the wildcat West Texas oil boom of the 1920s. It used to be that the worst crime in Caprock...

Nearly 70, Wes Hendricks has led a tough and colorful life as a cowboy and broncobuster, and all he asks now is that he be left alone on his poor, hardscrabble ranch in the West Texas hill country. Not a chance - the powers that be in the little town of Big River (including Wes' old cowboy pal...

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...

A six-time winner of the Western Writers of America's Spur Award, Elmer Kelton is the premier Western storyteller of his time. Eyes of the Hawk, winner of the Spur Award for Best Western Novel, is an outstanding tale of Texas - filled with authentic characters and history, and telling the story...

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...

Before he set down his pen, seven-time Spur Award winner Elmer Kelton—the Western Writers of America’s “Best Western Writer of All Time”—cut 50 notches on his gunbelt of classics. In this final novel of the Texas Rangers, a young lawman finds his mettle put to the test while bringing...

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...

In the aftermath of a bitter and bloody war for independence, Texans have finally claimed their freedom from Mexico - but they don't have much else to brag about. Joshua Buckalew has left behind the deserted battlefields that claimed his brother Thomas. The war has cost him much, but it has also...

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...

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...

From seven-time Spur Award winner Elmer Kelton comes a riveting tale befitting the Western Writers of America’s Greatest Western Writer of all time. When Comanches slaughter his parents in 1855 West Texas, eight-year-old Jeff buries their scalped bodies—and the charred remains of his younger...

In Hard Trail to Follow, by seven-time Spur Award winner Elmer Kelton, young Texas Ranger Andy Pickard vows to track down the bank robber he thinks killed his friend and mentor. But as he traverses the rugged terrain, Andy's perplexed at the glowing reports of the felon's kindness and integrity...

Elmer Kelton, voted "The Greatest Western Writer of All Time" by the Western Writers of America, is a legend in the field of Western literature. Famous for his realistic characters and accurate depictions of the history of his home state of Texas, Elmer Kelton continues to write exceptional...

In Bitter Trail, Kelton tells the story of a tough teamster named Frio Wheeler whose wagons haul cotton from Texas to Mexico. Sounds like a peaceable enterprise? The problem is that the Civil War is raging throughout the South and Wheeler's cotton is to be sold for gold--gold used to buy guns...

In Bitter Trail, Kelton tells the story of a tough teamster named Frio Wheeler whose wagons haul cotton from Texas to Mexico. Sounds like a peaceable enterprise? The problem is that the Civil War is raging throughout the South and Wheeler's cotton is to be sold for gold--gold used to buy guns...

In 1816, Mordecai Lewis, a veteran of Andrew Jackson's Indian campaigns and battles against the British, moves his family into the western Tennessee canebrakes. But Mordecai, a born wanderer, is not satisfied with farming, and with his sons Michael and Andrew and some other backwoodsmen, he...

In Stand Proud, one of his most controversial novels, legendary Western writer Elmer Kelton takes on a character who is not as easy to like as he is to admire. Frank Claymore is cantankerous, stubborn, and intolerant--just the qualities that make him a success as an open-range cattle rancher on...