Elmer Kelton

From rodeos to rustlers, from ranch life to the outlaw trail, Elmer Kelton's take on the human condition shows us life in Texas as it was back then: simpler but harder, with danger always present. Filled with unforgettable characters and adventure, and imbued with a love of the time, the people, and the place, these stories take us from the earliest days of the Wild West well into the twentieth century, each one embodying a passion for life that's...

Working faithfully for a Texas rancher despite his family's warnings, Chacho Fernandez steals his payment when his dishonest employer refuses to compensate him and is falsely accused of murdering a lawman.

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 and ammunition for the Confederate army.
And, added to his balky mules, the broiling heat, and killing drought of the Mexican dessert,

...

On the Texas frontier in the 1840s, a red-haired child whose family has been massacred is captured by a Comanche war party led by a great warrior named Buffalo Caller. The boy is rescued by Mike Shannon, a Mexican War veteran riding with a "ranging company" of Texans dedicated to protecting settlers against Indian raids, and is adopted by the Shannon family. In 1861 his adoptive father is bushwhacked and murdered and the boy—now known as Rusty Shannon—follows...

Daniel Provost is the son of a farmer. Living up to his father's high standards for the farm is very hard work, but his life is basically comfortable and a loving woman is waiting to become his wife. When a well-traveled stranger, bearing a story of Jim Bowie's legendary silver mine, appears at the farm, Daniel might just throw away everything for the chance at adventure he thought had passed him by.

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 was moonshining or lying about your Saturday night date on Sunday morning—until someone struck oil. Now the scent of the stuff has brought every dreamer, drifter,...

"Bandits, outlaws, romance, and adventure abound in Hard Ride, the second-ever collection of tales of the American West from renowned, seven-time Spur Award-winning author Elmer Kelton. Each of Elmer Kelton's superb stories of the West showcase the strength and power of western spirit. They are filled with marvelous characters--from a rodeo clown who seeks redemption via romance, to an outlaw who comes to the aid of ranchers with no other recourse...

"An action-packed collection of stories of the old West, Law of the Land includes the never-before-published "Biscuits for a Bandit." Sixteen stories, where good meets bad, and everything in between, from the legendary author of the west, Elmer Kelton. The Law of the Land chronicles some of his most exciting and dangerous tales of the old west, collected together for the first time"--