Bøker av Elmer Kelton

Gideon Ledbetter, freed from slavery, finds himself with no land, no money, and no means to make a living. He is drawn into the army, which had painted a deceptively alluring picture of cavalry life. Soon, Gideon becomes locked in a battle with a Comanche warrior, and a portrait emerges of two men who are merely pawns in a tragic conflict.

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 author presents both sides of a clash between cultures. With a firm grasp of Comanche life, he describes 'The People' as very human and very threatened.

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 fugitive to a group of zealous lawmen.

As a slave, Isaac Jefford went to war and saved the life of his master, Major Lytton. As a free man, Isaac became one of the major's top cowhands, respected - but never totally accepted - by fellow cowboys: when they gathered around the fire to eat their dinners, Isaac took his food and sat on the wagontongue alone. When Pete Runyan, a bitter southerner, joins the crew, Isaac has to swallow his rage more than once. But then Pete and Isaac are assigned the task of getting cash - profits from the sale of the herd - safely to the Fort Worth bank before a foreclosure deadline. Time and three gunmen on their trail are against them, and their journey becomes a race to prove who is the best man. The novel grew from a short story, included in this volume, along with a foreword in which Kelton explains the background of the story and the transition it made from short story to novel.

The Good Old Boys and The Smiling Country pairs two wonderful novels by one of the most honored of all western writers, Elmer KeltonThe Good Old BoysHewey Calloway has a problem. He wants to be a footloose cowboy, endlessly wandering the land on horseback, but the open range of his childhood is slowly disappearing. Land is being parceled out, barbed-wire fences are springing up all over, and cars are replacing the horse as a mode of transportation. Swimming against the tide of "progress," Hewey begins to understand that the time of the cowboy is over, that the life he dreams of has become part of the past. He must find a new path to happiness-one that may require a great sacrifice.The Smiling CountryIt is now 1910 and Hewey Calloway's freewheeling life is coming to an end-the fences, trucks, and automobiles he hates are even creeping in to remote Alpine in the "smiling country" of West Texas. When he is badly injured trying to break a renegade horse, Hewey's regrets over his lost love, schoolteacher Spring Renfro haunt him as he sees the loneliness that awaits him. The Smiling Country is filled with humor, love, and the lore of the cowboy life at a time when the great, free, open ranges of the West were adjusting to a new, technological era.

Texas Ranger Andy Pickard, newly married and unsure of himself and his choice of career, is given what appears to be a routine assignment: find and arrest a horse trader named Donley Bannister who is accused of murder. The difficulty begins after Andy locates Bannister's West Texas hideout and is shot by one of the trader's cohorts. In an ironic twist, Bannister saves the ranger's life by taking him to a cow camp where his wound can be treated. Then Bannister disappears.This routine assignment gets even more complicated after Andy heals well enough to ride and follows the trader's young wife, hoping she will lead him to her husband. Near Fort Concho the ranger's mission is interrupted when Bannister is shot and left for dead by an outlaw who takes Geneva Bannister hostage and brutally assaults her. Even after Bannister is apprehended, danger lurks; one of the trader's enemies is determined to ambush the ranger and his prisoner. From the experience, Andy Pickard learns a valuable lesson: nothing stirs emotions in Texas as men stealing other men's horses.

Kelton continues the story of the Lewis family and the formative years of the Lone Star state in this second installment of the saga of early Texas.

Hewey is back; older, wiser, and badly banged up trying to break a renegade bronc. His wandering days are over because of his injuries, because of fences that cut up the range, because of trucks and automobiles. But how will Hewey handle the new circumstances of his life? And how will Spring react to his return?

Reprint. Originally published: Garden City, N.Y., 1973.

When Texas Ranger private Andy Pickard is assigned to help patrol the Texas-Mexico border country he rides directly into a deadly feud. At odds are two land and cattle barons - Jericho Jackson, whose great spread lies just north of the Rio Grande, and Guadalupe Chavez, whose domain lies south of the river.The men are alike in only one respect: their hatred for each other, a hate born at the time of the Alamo and the U.S.-Mexican War, when Mexican lands were confiscated by ruthless Americans. The old rivals have turned to preying on each others'' cattle with resulting bloodshed on both sides of the river.Between the two camps, Big Jim McCawley''s ranch seems almost symbolic of the opportunity for the people of the two nations to live together. McCawley is married to Guadalupe Chavez''s sister, Juana -a fact that does not ingratiate him to either the Chavez or Jackson faction.To Andy Pickard, who as a child was taken captive by Comanches, old prejudices are familiar territory, but the Jackson-Chavez war is flaring out of control by the time he reaches the Ranger camp on the border in the company of fellow Ranger Farley Brackett. The two Rangers find themselves caught up in the feud, risking arrest for crossing the river into Mexico, and risking death for not heeding the warning sign at the edge of Jericho Jackson''s domain: This is Jericho''s Road. Take the Other.Inevitably, the cauldron boils over and the forces of Jericho Jackson and "Lupe" Chavez meet in bloody combat. In the midst of this battle on Mexican soil are Andy Pickard -- longing to court and marry Bethel Brackett and live a peaceful life as an ex-Ranger -- and Brackett himself, falling in love with Teresa, Big Jim McCawley''s half-Mexican daughter.Jericho''s Road, sixth book in Kelton''s acclaimed Texas Ranger series, typifies "The right blend of action, drama, romance, humor and suspense" that Publishers Weekly said has made Kelton "a master of both plot and character development."

The life of a Texas cowboy is tough--especially if he is a black man like Isaac Jefford. Though he is the best at what he does, Isaac is careful not to step "over the line"--until his boss hires a vicious Southerner filled with a burning hatred. Now the time for crossing the line has come.

First published in 1995 as a collection of four selected speeches by Elmer Kelton, this revised second edition includes three of those pieces plus two new ones.

The Texas Panhandleits eastern edge descending sharply from the plains into the canyons of Palo Duro, Tule, Quitaque, Casa Blanca, and Yellow House is as rich in history as it is in natural beauty. This work contributes to the historiography of the American West, focusing on the Texas Panhandle.