One thing is certain a reviewer in True West Magazine recently said as long as there are writers as skillful as Elmer Kelton Western literature will never dieFew would disagree with the assessment of the man whose peers voted the Best Western writer of all time and whose novels form a testament and tribute to the American Westnbsp nbspBut who is that Texas gentleman with the white Stetson and rimless eyeglasses whose friendly face appears on so many book jacketsnbspSandhills Boynbspis Keltons memoir a funny and poignant story ofnbsp a freckle-faced country boy green as a gourd a sheep ready to be sheared growing up in the wild dry sandhills of West Texas The son of a working cowboy and ranch foreman Elmer was expected to follow in fathers footsteps but learned at an early age that he hadnbspno talents in the cowboys trade Buck Kelton called Elmer Pop said he was slow as the seven-year itchnbspand reluctantly supported his sons decision to become a student at the University of Texas and eventually a journalist andnbspwriternbspKeltons life in ranch and oil patch Texas during the Great Depression is told with warm nostalgic humor animated with stories of the cowboys and their wives and kids who gave the time and place its special flavor He writes with great feeling of his service in WW in France Germany and Czechoslovakia and the romantic circumstances in which his life changed in the village of Ebensee Austria.
