Elmer kelton biography of nancy

Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer

April 26, 2012
Fortunately, though he grew up on a ranch in West Texas, Elmer Kelton by his own admission did not make a good cowboy. Instead, he became one of the best writers of historical western fiction, and this is his personal story. Born in 1926, the oldest of four boys, his father the foreman of a large ranch near Midland, Texas, Kelton devotes much of this autobiography to his early years and what it was like for his family during the Depression. Somewhat shy and bookish, he chose a career in journalism, interrupted while he was at the University of Texas by a year in the Army at the end of WWII. Stationed in Austria, he met his wife Anni, and he tells of their courtship, her immigration to the U.S., and their life together in West Texas.

Readers hoping for more of a story about his struggles, emergence, and recognition as a writer may be disappointed that he has so little to say about that. My favorite of his novels, "The Day the Cowboys Quit," gets only a brief mention. I would love to have learned more about the historical research and the creative choices that went into the writing of that book. I have also wondered how his more popular fiction, such as the Texas Rangers trilogy, manages to be both action-packed and historically accurate - unlike writers like Louis L'Amour, who focus mainly on the action.

All in all, Kelton fans will enjoy this book. It is a congenial read, self-effacing in many ways, and even a little apologetic, as if he regrets that he was never a "good cowboy." The chapters are illustrated with about two dozen photographs, mostly from the 1930s and 1940s. He gives the last word to his wife, Anni, who contributes the final chapter.

 From the Arizona Daily Star  June 3, 2024

“Autumn’s On Its Way” by Nancy Elliott. 
            Fulton Books.  206 pages.  $18.95.  Kindle $9.49.

                            Autumn's On Its Way
    This evocative portrayal of post-Civil War Arizona offers a self-possessed heroine in a historical old West setting vibrant with authenticity.

    Scottish by heritage and hard-nosed by nature, Rose MacKenzie embodies rugged individualism. When her husband dies of grief after their daughter’s kidnapping, Rose buries his remains herself to spare the four sons she must now raise alone. She’s widowed, but clearly not helpless. On the contrary, the savvy businesswoman — unafraid of brawling with cattle rustlers and rumored to carry a lethal knife — maintains her tight rein on the family’s MK Ranch, because anything the indomitable Rose MacKenzie doesn’t know about ranching probably isn’t worth knowing. But as the years pass and her hopes of finding her daughter go unrealized, the arrival of a scarred Civil War veteran from back East adds a new dimension to her life, her family relationships, and the future she thought was a given.

    Readers will be beguiled by author Nancy Elliott’s fully-realized characters and the dramatic twists and turns of her plotting. A singer-songwriter who performs nationally, Elliott has recorded four albums of mostly original music in the genre she has coined “Southwestern Americana.” This is the Sonoran Desert resident’s first book; hopefully, it is not her last.

— Helene Woodhams   Arizona Daily Star   June 3, 2024

 

I read it this past Easter weekend. Just ate it up, actually. And I thought about it that whole weekend and dreamed about it that first night. An amazing story … told with the same sparseness and ruggedness o

    Elmer kelton biography of nancy
  • "Nancy is a keen observer

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  • Kelton, who, at 60