Many of the ranch’s workers view Espy as an outsider and try to drive him out by refusing to do as he says. What say we just mark off our grievances and start fresh? (102)
We could get along fine, and I’d like to try. But there’s not much we can do about it now except take things the way they are and make the best of them. I didn’t know I was shoving you out of a job you thought was yours and I’m sorry it happened that way. Look, Miss Bowman, I don’t like us to be at odds with each other, and I don’t expect you do, either. Instead of letting anger get the better of him, he sympathizes with her and tries to make amends: When a thug beats him up, takes his mules, and tries to intimidate him into leaving, Espy suspects Mary’s involvement. He chooses to deal with these situations with courage, honor, and determination.įor example, Mary Bowman, who was expecting to inherit the ranch from her father, is distraught when she learns of Espy’s arrival and soon antagonizes him. But this transition is not easy, as Espy is greeted with hostility by resentful landowners, threatened by cattle thieves, and has difficulty repairing his relationship with Kenny.
Soon, he is offered a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to run a ranch on the Texas plains, where he brings Kenny to start a new life.
He embarrasses his young son, Kenny, with his drunkenness, motivating him to become sober and learn how to be a good father. Hot IronĮspy Norwood, a troubled rancher, turns to alcohol as a means of muting his sorrow over the death of his wife. 2 Together, these stories-reissued in 2019 in a single volume-demonstrate Kelton’s magnificent prose and are remarkable contributions to American literature. The Time It Never Rained is a more serious Western and Kelton’s favorite, earning him a Spur Award for Best Western Novel in 1973. Hot Iron, Kelton’s first novel (published in 1956), is an adventure story reminiscent of popular Westerns. In his spare time, he wrote novels based on his experiences, and by the time of his death in 2009, he had completed sixty-two books and was named the “greatest Western author of all time” by the Western Writers of America. To Kelton, who grew up on a ranch in Andrews County and was an associate editor of Livestock Weekly from 1968 to 1990, this life was all too familiar. Texas novelist Elmer Kelton’s West is a vivid, authentic world-one in which farmers struggle to keep their land, ranchers work backbreaking hours to support their families, cowboys explore the depths of the wilderness, and people make difficult but admirable choices in the face of adversity.
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