The Good Old Boys Author:Elmer Kelton Set in west Texas in 1906, this novel is by an award-winning author of westerns, and has been made into a film starring Tommy Lee Jones, Sam Shepherd and Sissy Spacek. As the world moves relentlessly into the machine age, Hewey Calloway is trying to remain a cowboy on horseback.
I thoroughly enjoyed this western. Hewey went home only to heal the emotional wounds he'd left there years before and found his brother in dire straits.
My bar-none favorite of the twenty or so Elmer Kelton books I have read and enjoyed so far.
My goal is to read everything Elmer Kelton has written. As fas as I'm concerned, he is the premier Western author, head and shoulders above Louis L'Amour. His books are more believable, and far less preachy. Most of them take place in Texas which adds to my enjoyment.
I'm "Cheesehead" (Wisconsin native)by birth, but Texan by choice, having lived here since 1973.
Kelton died about two years ago, but his estate is still publishing new work of his occasionally. When he started, he wrote using two psuedonyms, one of which was Tom Early. He wrote an execellent four book saga called "Sons of Texas" under the that name. Kelton was a journalist at that time and thought writing fiction under his real name might harm his credibility.