The Library Log

The Dublin Public Library continues with curb service and a new combination locker has been installed for pick-up of books and movies 24/7. Our staff remains diligent in finding ways to serve the community’s needs.

One of the best historians of 20th century ranching is Elmer Kelton.

He is famous for his fiction, but his characters, settings, plots all come from first-hand ranch knowledge.

Born in 1926 on a ranch just east of Andrews, Texas, Kelton was considered a failure as a cowboy-a horrible fate in a family of “top-hand” stockmen that went back generations.

When he started to school it was discovered that his eyesight was terrible and accounted for his failed wrangler skills.

Graduating from Crane High School, he headed to Austin to attend UT from 1942-1944 and again from 1946-1948, earning a degree in journalism. From 1944-1946, Kelton served in the U.S. Army in Europe as WWII was ending.

Working as a farm/ranch editor for the San Angelo Standard-Times from 1948-1963, then on to Sheep and Goat Raiser Magazine, and then 22 years as the editor of Livestock Weekly. During those 42 years he got to know many ranchers, their ups/downs, traveling West Texas he knew the land, heard histories of ranching families.

From this vast body of experience growing up on a working ranch and living among cattlemen in an often-brutal terrain his stories are well crafted. “The Time It Never Rained,” “The Day the Cowboys Quit,” “The Way of the Coyote,” and “Buffalo Wagons” and many other tales were born.

IN THE STACKS

Two great non-fiction pieces by Kelton tell his own history and provide an appreciation for what a master he was at bringing the true story of Texas’ past to readers.

“Elmer Kelton Country: The Short Nonfiction of a Texas Novelist”

Kelton kept his day job! By day he traveled West Texas to report on livestock auctions, range conditions, rodeo results, etc. and by night he created fiction with themes of environmental issues, agricultural developments, the history of rodeo as a sport.

With the reminiscences of ranching people, he came up with story lines and impressive characters. “Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer”

This is the best autobiography I have ever read. Kelton tells his own story and it feels like sitting on the porch in a rocking chair with him enjoying a glass of tea.

A ranch boy going to UT was not considered a good decision by his father. The story of what a misfit Kelton was in his own family is worth reading.

His account of the Great Depression on ranches and oil patch Texas is told with much local color.

Also, of keen interest is his service in WWII France, Germany, Czechoslovakia and meeting the young woman who would become his wife in Austria.

The story of getting her to America in post-WWII gives immigration a whole new twist!

When Kelton died in 2009 Texas lost one of the great ones.

The library has 40 pieces of Kelton’s award-winning fiction. First indulge in some of Kelton’s own history; it will make the novels so much richer.

Dublin Public Library

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staff@dublinlibrary.org