![]() ![]() 1 That may sound bitter, but it’s largely true. “Critics don’t read a Western unless the book is contemptuous of its subject matter,” Kelton once said. One reason critics often ignored Kelton was that his novels celebrate the virtues of integrity, honor, hard work, and bravery, with none of the nihilism that pervades McCarthy’s books or the mournfulness that marks McMurtry’s. Like the others, it combines some of his earliest work, which appeared in pulp magazines in the 1950s, with stories from the 1970s and 1980s that have never before been published. Law of the Land is the fourth in a series of collections of Kelton’s short stories that Forge has published in recent years-the others being The Cowboy Way (2020), Hard Ride (2018), and Wild West (2017). That is a shame, and we should be grateful that Forge Books has been working to keep Kelton’s fiction available for readers interested in stories that exemplify the virtues that built the American West. Whereas the nation’s leading literary critics gave renown to such authors as Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy, they generally ignored Kelton, or regarded him as a merely regional or niche author, despite the fact that he wrote a half dozen of the best American novels of the 20th century. Yet few among the broader reading public have ever heard his name. He was even named the “greatest Western writer of all time” by the Western Writers of America. “He Created a New Kind of Western.” Wall Street Journal, November 24, 2009.The late Texas writer Elmer Kelton is well known to fans of Westerns. Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 1989. Elmer Kelton and West Texas: A Literary Relationship. Fort Worth: Texas Christian University Press, 2011.Īlter, Judy. Men by Book Table.Īlter, Judy and James Ward Lee, eds. Lawrence Clayton the Dean of Arts and Sciences at HSU, and Dr. Don Graham from UT Austin, Elmer Kelton the San Angelo novelist, Dr. ![]() The Time It Never Rained is now remembered as his finest work, and a lasting contribution to Texas literary history.Ĭopy negative of four men standing behind a book table at the Moody Center at HSU at a luncheon in honor of Elmer Kelton. In 1995, Kelton was voted the "greatest western writer of all time" by the Western Writers of America. I write about people five feet eight and nervous.” Kelton once explained, “I can’t write about heroes seven feet tall and invincible. His 1973 novel The Time It Never Rained, set in the drought-stricken Texas of the 1950s, ushered in a new kind of Western-one concerned with the modern day rather than a bygone era of pioneers and cattle drives. But he also wrote fiction, and gradually gained fame as an authentic voice of Western literature. Instead, he enrolled at The University of Texas in Austin, majoring in journalism.Īfter serving in the army during World War II, Kelton returned to Texas to work as an editor for farm and ranch journals. Young Elmer, with his poor eyesight and love of books, realized he would never become the cowboy his father wanted him to be. The Time it Never Rainedīorn in 1926, Kelton grew up on the McElroy ranch near Midland, where his father was the general manager. These were qualities that Kelton knew well, having spent his entire life in the region. X A downtown mural, by western artist Stylle Read, in San Angelo, the seat of Tom Green County, TexasĪuthor of more than forty Westerns, the writer Elmer Kelton depicted the South Texas Plains with both romance and realism.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |