The Smiling Country (Hewey Calloway Series #2) »

Elmer Kelton, author of more than forty novels, grew up on a ranch near Crane, Texas, and earned a journalism degree from the University of Texas. His first novel, Hot Iron, was published in 1956. For forty-two years he had a parallel career in agricultural journalism.

Among his awards have been seven Spurs from Western Writers of America and four Western Heritage awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Among his best-known works have been The Time It Never Rained and The Good Old Boys, the latter made into a television film starring Tommy Lee Jones.

He served in the infantry in World War II. He and his wife, Ann, a native of Austria, live in San Angelo, Texas. They have three children, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

From Zane Grey and Owen Wister to Larry McMurtry and Cormac McCarthy, the western novel has undergone myriad stylistic changes. But the basic elements -- clear-cut heroes and villains, the redeeming power of violence, and the intrinsic beauty and my thic resonance of the landscape -- have remained universal constants. The titles included in our collection of genre classics old and new bear this out. Buffalo Soldiers, Apache warriors, mountain men, cowboys, and Hollywood mythmakers -- here are w holly authentic characters who portray the visceral and emotional realities of the western frontier from fresh, challenging perspectives.

American Cowboy

You can never go wrong if you want to read a good story with realistic characters and you pick up a title by Elmer Kelton. In the case of his newest book, The Smiling Country, the guarantee is as good as gold...Kelton's character's jump off the page, they are so real. This is another fine title from the man named the Greatest Western Writer of All Time in a 1995 survey by the Western Writers of America.