Kelton, Elmer 1926–

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Kelton, Elmer 1926–

(Tom Early, Alex Hawk, Lee McElroy)

PERSONAL:

Born April 29, 1926, in Andrews, TX; son of R.W. (a cowman) and Beatrice Kelton; married Anna Lipp, July 3, 1947; children: Gary, Stephen, Kathryn. Education: University of Texas, B.A., 1948. Politics: "Very independent." Religion: Methodist.

ADDRESSES:

Home—San Angelo, TX. Agent—Sobel Weber Associates, 146 E. 19th., New York, NY 10010.

CAREER:

Writer and editor. San Angelo Standard-Times, San Angelo, TX, farm and ranch editor, 1948-63; Ranch (magazine), editor, 1963-68; Livestock Weekly, associate editor, 1968-90. Military service: U.S. Army, Infantry, 1944-46; served in Europe.

MEMBER:

Western Writers of America (director, 1960-62, and 1963-64; president, 1962-63), Texas Institute of Letters, Texas Folklore Society, Sigma Delta Chi.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Spur Award for best western novel, Western Writers of America, 1957, for Buffalo Wagons, 1972, for The Day the Cowboys Quit, 1974, for The Time It Never Rained, 1982, for Eyes of the Hawk, and 2002, for The Way of the Coyote, also for Slaughter and The Far Canyon; Award of Merit, Texas Civil War Centennial Commission, 1962, for Bitter Trail; Best Southwest Novel of the Year Award, Border Regional Library Association, 1972, for The Day the Cowboys Quit; Western Heritage Award, National Cowboy Hall of Fame, 1974, for The Time It Never Rained, 1979, for The Good Old Boys, 1988, for The Man Who Rode Midnight, and 1992 for The Art of Howard Terpning; Tinkle-McCombs Award, Texas Institute of Letters, 1987, for continuing excellence in Texas writing; Western American Literature Distinguished Achievement Award, 1990; Lone Star Award for Lifetime Achievement, Larry McMurtry Center for the Arts and Humanities, 1998; lifetime achievement award, National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock, TX; 2003 Bookend Award, Texas Book Festival, in "recognition of a lifetime of contributions to Texas literature"; recipient of honorary doctorates from Hardin-Simmons University and Texas Tech University; state awards, Associated Press, for news stories and pictures.

WRITINGS:

FICTION

Hot Iron, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1956.

Buffalo Wagons, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1957.

Barbed Wire (also see below), Ballantine (New York, NY), 1957.

Shadow of a Star, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1959.

The Texas Rifles, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1960.

Donovan, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1961.

Bitter Trail, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1962.

Horsehead Crossing, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1963.

Llano River (also see below), Ballantine (New York, NY), 1966.

(Illustrator) Jerry Lackey, Papa Didn't Spare the Rod, Naylor Co., 1968.

Captain's Rangers, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1969.

(Under pseudonym Alex Hawk) Shotgun Settlement, Paperback Library (New York, NY), 1969.

Hanging Judge, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1969, reprinted, G.K. Hall (Thorndike, ME), 1999.

The Day the Cowboys Quit, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1971, revised edition, Texas Christian University Press (Fort Worth, TX), 1986, reprinted, G.K. Hall (Boston, MA), 1993.

Wagontongue, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1972, reprinted, Thorndike Press (Thorndike, ME), 1998.

The Time It Never Rained, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1973, revised edition, Texas Christian University Press (Fort Worth, TX), 1984, reprinted, G.K. Hall (Boston, MA), 1988.

The Good Old Boys, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1978, revised edition, Texas Christian University Press (Fort Worth, TX), 1985, reprinted with a new introduction, and an afterword by Don Graham, Thorndike Press (Thorndike, ME), 1999.

The Wolf and the Buffalo, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1980, revised edition, Texas Christian University Press (Fort Worth, TX), 1986, reprinted, G.K. Hall (Boston, MA), 1989.

(Editor) Victor I. Pierce, Yesteryear in Ozona and Crockett County, Crockett County Historical Society (TX), 1980.

Stand Proud: A Texas Saga, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1984, revised edition, Texas Christian University Press (Fort Worth, TX), 1990.

Dark Thicket, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1985, reprinted with an afterword by Laurie Champion, G.K. Hall (Thorndike, ME), 1993, reprinted, Texas Christian University Press (Fort Worth, TX), 1999.

There's Always another Chance, and Other Stories, edited by Lawrence Clayton, Fort Concho Museum Press, 1986.

The Man Who Rode Midnight, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1987, revised edition, Texas Christian University Press (Fort Worth, TX), 1990.

Honor at Daybreak: A Novel of Texas, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1991, reprinted with with an afterword by Joyce Gibson Roach, Texas Christian University Press (Fort Worth, TX), 2002.

Slaughter, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1992, reprinted, Thorndike Press (Thorndike, ME), 1995.

The Big Brand, G.K. Hall (Boston, MA), 1992.

Manhunters, Texas Christian University Press (Fort Worth, TX), 1994.

The Far Canyon, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1994.

The Pumpkin Rollers, Forge (New York, NY), 1996.

Cloudy in the West, Wheeler (Rockland, MA), 1997.

The Smiling Country, Forge (New York, NY) 1998, reprinted with an afterword by Ruth McAdams, Texas Christian University Press (Fort Worth), 2006.

The Buckskin Line (also see below), Forge (New York, NY), 1999.

Badger Boy (also see below), Forge (New York, NY), 2001.

The Way of the Coyote (also see below), Forge (New York, NY), 2001.

Ranger's Trail, Forge (New York, NY), 2002.

Lone Star Rising: The Texas Rangers Trilogy (includes The Buckskin Line, Badger Boy, and The Way of the Coyote), Forge (New York, NY), 2003.

Texas Vendetta, Forge (New York, NY), 2004.

Jericho's Road, Forge (New York, NY), 2004.

Brush Country: Two Texas Novels (includes Barbed Wire and Llano River), Forge (New York, NY), 2005.

Six Bits a Day, Forge (New York, NY), 2005.

Ranger's Law: A Lone Star Saga, Forge (New York, NY), 2006.

Texas Showdown: Two Texas Novels (includes Pecos Crossing and Shotgun), Forge (New York, NY), 2007.

Hard Trail to Follow, Forge Books (New York, NY), 2008.

Many a River, Forge Books (New York, NY), 2008.

"BUCKALEW" SERIES

Massacre at Goliad, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1965.

After the Bugles, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1967.

Bowie's Mine, Ballantine (New York, NY), 1971.

Long Way to Texas, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1976.

"SONS OF TEXAS" SERIES; UNDER PSEUDONYM TOM EARLY

Sons of Texas, Berkley Books (New York, NY), 1989, reprinted, Forge (New York, NY), 2005.

The Danger, the Daring, Berkley (New York, NY), 1989.

The Raiders, Berkley (New York, NY), 1989, reprinted as The Raiders: Sons of Texas, Forge (New York, NY), 2006.

The Rebels, Berkley (New York, NY), 1990, reprinted as The Rebels: Sons of Texas, Forge (New York, NY), 2007.

UNDER PSEUDONYM LEE MCELROY

Joe Pepper, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1975.

Eyes of the Hawk, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1981, reprinted, Thorndike Press (Thorndike, ME), 1998.

OTHER

Frank McCarthy: The Old West, Greenwich Press (New York, NY), 1981.

The Art of Frank C. McCarthy, introduction by James K. Ballinger, Morrow (New York, NY), 1992.

The Art of Howard Terpning, introduction by Darrell R. Kipp, Bantam Books (New York, NY), 1992.

The Art of James Bama, introduction by Peter H. Hassrick, Greenwich Workshop (Trumbull, CT), 1993.

Elmer Kelton Country: The Short Nonfiction of a Texas Novelist, Texas Christian University Press (Fort Worth, TX), 1993.

(Editor) The Indian in Frontier News, The Talley Press, 1993.

My Kind of Heroes: Selected Speeches, State House Press (Austin, TX), 1995, 2nd edition, State House Press (Austin, TX), 2004.

Texas Cattle Barons: Their Families, Land, and Legacy, foreword by Tommy Lee Jones, introduction and photography by Kathleen Jo Ryan, Ten Speed Press, 1999.

Christmas at the Ranch (essays), illustrated by H.C. Zachry, foreword by Walt McDonald, McWhiney Foundation Press (Abilene, TX), 2003.

Ranger's Trail (sound recording), Prince Frederick (Prince Frederick, MD), 2004.

Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer (memoir), Forge Books (New York, NY), 2007.

Contributor to books, including Texas, by Laurence Parent, Graphic Arts Center, 1995; Stories of the Golden West, edited by Jon Tuska, Five Star (Unity, ME), 2002; and The Funeral of Tanner Moody, Dorchester (New York, NY), 2004. Contributor of short stories to magazines and articles to farm periodicals.

Kelton's manuscript collection is maintained in the Southwest Collection at Texas Tech University, Lubbock.

ADAPTATIONS:

Slaughter was adapted to audio in 1994; The Good Old Boys was made into a 1995 television movie for the TNT cable network.

SIDELIGHTS:

Elmer Kelton writes about his native West Texas, and his novels are full of the land, animals, and the people who settled that area. "A majority of my fictional works are based strongly in history, mostly Texas history, my own personal niche," he commented in Twentieth-Century Western Writers. "I have chosen various periods of change or of stress in which an old order is being pushed aside by the new, and through the fictional characters try to give the readers some understanding of the human reasons for and effects of these changes. The challenge of meeting changing times is one thing each generation faces in common with all those which have gone before and all those yet to come. I strongly believe history remains highly relevant to us today, for what we are—our customs, our attitudes, our reactions to events at home and around the world—is the sum product of all that has gone before us. The better we understand history the more likely we are to understand the present and to be able to cope with the future."

Kelton's sense of Western history and the people who shaped it is the result of his upbringing, which included growing up around cowboys who told him stories about the old days. His writings, however, cannot be grouped with the stereotypical Westerns of the past. He "is regarded as one of the best of a new breed of Western writers who have driven the genre into new territory," explained Robert Reinhold in the New York Times. Kelton's novels cover a wide range of experiences and events that shaped the West. Hot Iron, Barbed Wire, and Shotgun Settlement, for example, are about Texas cattle ranching. Kelton won the Spur Award for Buffalo Wagons, a novel about buffalo hunters in Comanche territory. Shadow of a Star, Donovan, Hanging Judge, and Manhunters all concern the dangerous lives of outlaws and lawmen when the West was young and wild. The Texas Rifles, Wagontongue, The Wolf and the Buffalo, and Dark Thicket are about the Civil War and its aftermath, as well as its effects on men of various races, including Anglo-Americans, African Americans, and Native Americans. Kelton's "Buckalew" tetralogy includes Massacre at Goliad, After the Bugles, Bowie's Mine, and Long Way to Texas, and tells of the Buckalew family as it passes through various eras of Texas history.

Many of Kelton's novels are set in modern times, including The Man Who Rode Midnight, the story of Wes Hendrix, an old cattle rancher who refuses to sell his land to developers. David Dary wrote in the Los Angeles Times Book Review that the book "is realistic, and it ignores the conventions and cliches that clutter the landscape of all too many novels labeled as Westerns. It is as fresh as a West Texas breeze." Bob Allen asserted in the Washington Post that even though the dialogue sounds as if it "could have been lifted straight from an old Roy Rogers movie, … the characters are movingly drawn, as are Kelton's descriptions of the bleakly beautiful landscape." The Man Who Rode Midnight is a "delightful book from a writer who deserves more recognition" and will "pleasantly" surprise readers, noted Dary.

Kelton has continued to write well-respected Westerns into the twenty-first century. Among his novels are a series of books about the Texas Rangers. In one of these, Jericho's Road, the author tells the story of Mexican and American ranchers rustling each other's cattle across the Texas-Mexico border. Andy Pickard, a young Texas Ranger who was kidnapped and raised by Indians, is keenly aware of the power of bigotry as he sets out with his partners to settle the dispute in which the two sides hate each other. Writing in Booklist, Wes Lukowsky commented: "This is arguably the best ongoing western series in the genre today. It shouldn't be missed." A Publishers Weekly contributor wrote: "His characters are sharply defined, the historical background is vivid and the gunplay can't be beat."

Sons of Texas tells the story of Michael Lewis, who went west with his father, Mordecai Lewis, and the rest of his family. Michael and his father end up on the wrong side of Lieutenant Armando Rodriguez when they round up a herd of wild mustangs protected by the Mexican military. Betrayed by one of their own, Cyrus Blackwood, the band of cowboys ends up ambushed by Rodriguez, and Michael's father is killed. While seeking out the betrayer, Michael shoots Blackwood's younger brother when the young Blackwood tries to bushwhack him. The Blackwoods vow revenge, and Michael heads west to avoid further bloodshed, promising his love that he will return. "Dialogue from heaven and storytelling fresh as a gunshot grip each page," according to a Kirkus Reviews contributor. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented that the quality of the writing and research "give what could be a hokey story nice nuance."

In the novel Six Bits a Day, Kelton brings back a favorite character, Hewey Calloway, the only cowboy hero who is inept with a gun. Kelton revives the Texas cowhand's past when the young Calloway and his brother accidentally fall in with rustlers, betray them, and then must watch their backs as they work for a tough rancher. A Kirkus Reviews writer appreciated the author's descriptions of "easygoing days in the saddle, related in a drawl that's sweet as pure honey." Another reviewer for Publishers Weekly noted that the author "is riding high again."

Among the author's other novels written in the twenty-first century is Texas Vendetta, published in 2004. The novel features an ongoing feud between the Landons and the Hoppers. Although several generations of the two families have been fighting and often killing each other, the origins of the feud are long forgotten. Nevertheless, Jayce Landon has killed Ned Hopper and is arrested for murder, leading Texas Rangers Andy Pickard and Farley Brackett to become caught in the middle of the feud as they attempt to keep the Landons from breaking their kinsperson out of jail, and the Hoppers from killing him. "As usual, Kelton creates a story rich in historical context, character development and action," wrote Glenn Dromgoole in the Houston Chronicle. Wes Lukowsky, writing in Booklist, noted that the author uses "the exciting context of a western adventure" to delve into "the crippling consequences of … [remaining caught up in] a painful past."

Although known as a writer of westerns, Kelton has also turned to writing more nonfiction in his later years. Christmas at the Ranch is a series of three essays that include illustrations by H.C. Zachry. The two previously published essays are about childhood Christmases and the new essay recalls a visit back to his wife's homeland of Austria. "I had already written the first two stories, and I just expanded them a little," Kelton told Art Chapman in an article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "The last one—the story about our visit to Austria—was part of a talk I gave at a book festival at Angelo State University. I just touched it up a bit." Chapman called the title story "charming" and went on to note: "It is funny, and moving."

In his 2007 memoir, Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer, the author fondly recalls his life growing up in the "sandhills," an area in West Texas that is west of Odessa and the uppermost northern fringe of the Chihuahuan Desert. "This is really my first turn at anything biographical," the author told Daniel Skolfield in an interview of the Odessa American. "My publisher and my agent have been after me a long time, and I thought if I'm going to do it, I better do it."

In his memoir, the author writes of growing up with low self-esteem. As a result, while his brothers follow after their father, Buck Kelton, a cowboy and then ranch foreman and manager, the young Kelton finds that he would rather read than work on the ranch. As a result, Kelton decides early that he wants to be a writer, something his father does not support. The author goes on to write about his time in college and in the U.S. Army during the end of World War II. Ultimately assigned as a guard at a prisoner-of-war camp in Austria, the author meets his future wife, Anni. When they return to the United States, Kelton completes his education and follows his career as he eventually becomes an associate editor at Livestock Weekly.

"Inevitably, an autobiography is selective in what it reveals of the author's life, and Sandhills Boy is no exception," wrote Tom Pilkington in the Houston Chronicle. "Kelton tells us what he wants us to know, even if we are left begging for elaboration. For instance, he only hints at the costs of being a writer. He refers briefly to all the times he sat hunched over a typewriter with his back to his wife and children."

Despite Pilkington's belief that the author does not quite reveal enough about his inner life, Sandhills Boy received praise from reviewers. Referring to the memoir as "charming," a Kirkus Reviews contributor went on to note that Kelton writes in his book how the term "‘cowboy’ has taken on negative connotations." The reviewer added: "This memoir helps restore what to westerners is an honorable term, and it's a pleasure through and through." Pilkington called Sandhills Boy "a beautifully written, highly readable memoir," adding: "Elmer Kelton is a Texas treasure, and his new book supplies much insight into the origins and growth of a unique storytelling talent."

Modern readers have been given the chance to read new publications of earlier works by the author. Brush Country: Two Texas Novels, published in 2005, features Barbed Wire, first published in 1957, and Llano River, a novel that first came out in 1966. Barbed Wire features former cowboy Doug Monahan, who is now foreman of a fencing crew putting up red-painted barbed wire to protect both the cattle and ranchers' land. However, Captain Andrew Rinehart, a former Confederate Army officer who owns a huge ranch and favors open range, is out to stop the fences from being laid with the help of his violent foreman, Archer Spann. Llano River tells the story of a cowboy named Dundee who gets hired to find out who is rustling John Titus's cattle. The only problem is that Dundee wants the truth while Titus has his own ideas about justice. "Despite being written some four decades ago, … these character-driven, intelligently plotted tales are quality Kelton," noted Wes Lukowsky in Booklist.

Texas Showdown: Two Texas Novels was published in 2007 and presents readers with two of the author's short novels written in in the 1960s. In Pecos Crossing, Johnny Fristo and Speck Quitman are two young cowboys out to get the money that's owed to them by Larramore, their former rancher boss. Along the way, the two become mistaken by a renowned Texas Ranger for the men who shot his wife. Shotgun features Blair Bishop, a Texas rancher who must contend with Macy Modock, a tough customer who has just gotten out of prison and seeks revenge on Blair for sending him there in the first place. Modock's plan is to start a range war between Blair and his neighbor, who have been longtime rivals. Calling the author's tale "absolutely authentic," Booklist contributor Ian Chipman went on to note that the author "is a master at spinning that wildly expressive species of dusty idiom that makes good" western stories.

Kelton once told CA: "There are three kinds of truth in the telling of our past: fact, folklore, and fiction. Each has its place. Formal history tells what happened, when, where, and to whom. But the formal historian is bound by the necessity to document his statements. He is not free to speculate upon the ‘whys’ of it all.

"Folklore often tells us more about people than formal history does. It is not bound by the restrictions which fetter the historian. Fiction gives the writer freedom to combine the best elements of fact and folklore, plus his own creativity, to illuminate areas the light of the other two may not reach. With fiction we are able to stir the senses and emotions and, by personalizing history, give it a reality the reader might otherwise never experience. This does not give us a moral right to distort or falsify. The historical fiction writer has a moral obligation to remain true to the spirit of his subject matter, to create rather than to destroy."

Kelton later added: "I first became interested in writing because I loved to read stories and by eight or nine years was beginning to write my own. I knew early in life that I wanted to be a writer.

"A love of history strongly influences my work. Most of my fiction is heavily based on some phase of history, in the natural conflicts brought about by change.

"I have no specific routine in writing. I try some each day when I am at home, though I do not set quotas for myself. Some days the creative jusices flow easily, and some days are like squeezing a dry lemon.

"The most surprising thing I learned as a writer is that it never really gets easier. In one respect it becomes harder because when you have a large body of work behind you, it is all too easy to begin repeating yourself. I try not to write the same book twice.

"My favorite of my own books is The Time It Never Rained, a story of the long Texas drought of the 1950s. It was written out of personal experience and observation, not from book research. It is very personal to me for that reason. My second favorite has to be The Good Old Boys, inspired by the stories I heard from cowboys while growing up. Hewey Calloway has become my favorite character insofar as my own books are concerned."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Kelton, Elmer, Elmer Kelton Country: The Short Nonfiction of a Texas Novelist, Texas Christian University Press (Fort Worth, TX), 1993.

Kelton, Elmer, My Kind of Heroes: Selected Speeches, State House Press (Austin, TX), 1995.

Twentieth-Century Western Writers, 2nd edition, St. James Press (Detroit, MI), 1991.

PERIODICALS

American Artist, February, 1994, Diane Casella Hines, review of The Art of Frank C. McCarthy, p. 82.

American Enterprise, July 1, 2006, Bill Kauffman, "Stubborn Cowboys: Outdoor Americans as Chronicled by a Man of the Prairie," p. 34.

American Libraries, May, 1999, review of The Smiling Country, p. 106.

Booklist, December 1, 1994, Wes Lukowsky, review of Manhunters, p. 654; March 15, 1996, Wes Lukowsky, review of The Pumpkin Rollers, p. 1240; March 15, 1998, review of Cloudy in the West, p. 1216; August, 1998, Wes Lukowsky, review of The Smiling Country, p. 1963; March 1, 1999, Bill Ott, review of The Smiling Country, p. 1154; June 1, 1999, Budd Arthur, review of The Buckskin Line, p. 1791; November 15, 2001, review of The Way of the Coyote, p. 549; November 15, 2001, Wes Lukowsky, review of The Way of the Coyote, p. 549; August 2002, Wes Lukowsky, review of Ranger's Trail, p. 1921; February 1, 2004, Wes Lukowsky, review of Texas Vendetta, p. 950; October 15, 2004, Wes Lukowsky, review of Jericho's Road, p. 390; January 1, 2006, Wes Lukowsky, review of Brush Country: Two Texas Novels, p. 76; June 1, 2006, Wes Lukowsky, review of The Raiders: Sons of Texas, p. 53; Janu- ary 1, 2007, Ian Chipman, review of Texas Showdown: Two Texas Novels, p. 72; March 15, 2007, Ian Chipman, review of Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer, p. 15; September 15, 2007, Ian Chipman, "Cowboy Stories," p. 59; October 1, 2007, Ian Chipman, review of The Rebels: Sons of Texas, p. 43.

Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 18, 2002, review of Ranger's Trail; November 4, 2003, Art Chapman, "Annual Event to Honor Texas Literary Legend Elmer Kelton."

Houston Chronicle, January 18, 2004, Glenn Dromgoole, "Taking on the Texas Rangers; Fifth Novel in Kelton's Series Stands Alone Successfully," p. 21; January 25, 2004, Matt Phinney, "Still Riding High; Texas Writer Kelton Has More Old West Stories up His Sleeve," p. 36; June 24, 2007, Tom Pilkington, "Best in the West; Voice of Cowboy Sounds throughout Elmer Kelton's Memoir," p. 19.

Kirkus Reviews, September 15, 2001, review of The Way of the Coyote, p. 1323; December 15, 2003, review of Texas Vendetta, p. 1423; April 15, 2005, review of Sons of Texas, p. 44; September 1, 2005, review of Six Bits a Day, p. 936; March 15, 2007, review of Sandhills Boy.

Los Angeles Times Book Review, September 6, 1987, David Dary, review of The Man Who Rode Midnight.

New York Times, January 1, 1986, Robert Reinhold, "Elmer Kelton's Unlikely Heroes Push Western Novel into New Territory," p. N7.

Odessa American, June 22, 2007, Daniel Skolfield, "Kelton Back in the Saddle."

Publishers Weekly, January 18, 1991, Sybil Steinberg, review of Honor at Daybreak: A Novel of Texas, p. 44; June 15, 1992, review of The Art of Howard Terpning, p. 94; September 28, 1992, review of Slaughter, p. 65; June 27, 1994, review of The Far Canyon, p. 56; February 5, 1996, review of The Pumpkin Rollers, p. 78; February 3, 1997, review of Cloudy in the West, p. 93; June 15, 1998, review of The Smiling Country, p. 43; July 19, 1999, review of The Buckskin Line, p. 185; November 13, 2000, review of Badger Boy, p. 86; October 29, 2001, review of The Way of the Coyote, p. 33; August 19, 2002, review of Ranger's Trail, p. 67; January 19, 2004, review of Texas Vendetta, p. 54; November 1, 2004, review of Jericho's Road, p. 43; April 25, 2005, review of Sons of Texas, p. 37; September 5, 2005, review of Six Bits a Day, p. 35; August 13, 2007, review of The Rebels, p. 39.

Roundup Magazine, April, 1997, review of Cloudy in the West, p. 28; October, 1998, review of The Smiling Country, p. 31; August, 1999, review of The Buckskin Line, p. 29; June, 2000, review of Texas Cattle Barons: Their Families, Land, and Legacy, p. 40; December, 2001, review of The Way of the Coyote, p. 27; August, 2002, review of Ranger's Trail, p. 25; February, 2004, Doris R. Meredith, review of Texas Vendetta, p. 31; February, 2005, review of My Kind of Heroes, p. 19; April, 2006, Doris R. Meredith, review of Brush Country, p. 31; June, 2006, Candy Moulton, review of The Raiders, p. 43; April, 2007, Linda Wommack, review of Ranger's Law: A Lone Star Saga, p. 23.