Winner, Mitchell A. Wilder Award for Publication Design, Texas Association of Museums Folks across the West know a cowpoke named Jake. A good-hearted guy, he's always up to his eyebrows in debt or drought or prickly pears looking for them dad-blamed ole wild cows. In fact, he's so real a fella that it's hard to believe that Ace Reid made him up. This book brings together 139 of Ace Reid's popular "Cowpokes" cartoons, reproduced in large format to show the artistry and attention to detail that characterized Reid's work. Grouped around themes such as work, weather, bankers, and friends, they reveal the distinctive "you might as well laugh as cry" sense of humor that ranch folks draw on to get through hard work and hard times. In the foreword, Washington Post cartoonist Pat Oliphant offers an appreciation of Reid's "Cowpokes" cartoons, noting that "Ace's work has a magic of its own, and it owes nothing to anyone else." Reid's longtime friend Elmer Kelton recounts Ace's life and career in the introduction, describing how a shy boy who grew up on ranch work transformed himself into an artist-entrepreneur who never met a stranger and who made ranch work the subject of his real love, cartooning. This collector's volume belongs on the shelf of everyone who loves the "Cowpokes" cartoons, knows a fella like Jake, or enjoys the dry wit of the American cowboy.

In" Lone Star Rising," Elmer Kelton ("A Texas Legend," according to Texas Governor Rick Perry), brings together the first three books of his acclaimed Texas Ranger saga.
"The Buckskin Line" introduces Rusty Shannon, the red-haired Comanche captive rescued and adopted by Mike Shannon, who is a member of a Texas "ranging company" that protects settlers from Indian raids. In the throes of the War Between the States, Rusty joins the Rangers and searches for the renegades who killed his adoptive father.
In "Badger Boy," the Rangers are disbanded and Rusty returns to his home on the Red River only to discover that the girl he loves has married another. In a time of personal turmoil as well as the post-war uphheaval in Texas, Rusty's childhood returns to haunt him as he rescues Andy Pickard, called Badger Boy by his Comanche captors.
Andy and Rusty ride together in the newly reformed Rangers in "The Way of the Coyote," in a time when Texas is overrun with outlaws, Confederate raiders, Ku Klux Klansmen, and marauding Comanches.

A thrilling collection of twelve powerful and action-packed stories that celebrate the legendary Texas Rangers from Louis L'Amour, the world's greatest Western storyteller, Rod Miller, and many more. Explore the proud heritage of the elite Texas Rangers in these exhilarating, white-knuckled stories. From historical tales of outlaws and rustlers to modern thrillers of tracking serial killers with the latest technology, Lone Star Law is an outstanding collection of stories about delivering justice the Texan way.

"Ranger's Law" brings together the fourth, fifth, and sixth of Elmer Kelton's novels on the formative years of the Texas Rangers. Kelton's young heroes, Rusty Shannon, and one-time Comanche captive, Andy Pickard, fight Indians, outlaws, feuding ranchers, smugglers, and all manner of lawbreakers while trying to make lives for themselves in the tumult of post-Civil War Texas. In "Ranger's Trail "it is 1874 and retired Texas Ranger Rusty Shannon is urged to rejoin the force to assist in protecting settlers from Indian raids and outlaw bands. After the girl he loves dies, Rusty goes on a vengeance trail, determined to find and kill the man who has ruined his life. But the trail Rusty is following may lead him to an innocent man.
"Texas"" Vendetta"" "takes the young ranger Andy Pickard into the midst of a hate-filled and bloody post-Civil War feud between two Texas families. Pickard, who survived a childhood as a Comanche captive called "Badger Boy," also becomes involved with the young son of an outlaw, a boy who has been "adopted" by the rangers at their San Saba River camp, earning his way as a cook's helper. The boy's father, now released from prison, comes to take his son back, and into a life on the run.
In "Jericho's Road, "Andy Pickard is assigned to the Texas-Mexico border and finds an ominous notice on the edge of a great tract of ranch land above the Rio Grande: "This is Jericho's Road. Take the Other."" "The sign signifies Jericho Jackson's land and Jackson is at war with a similarly ruthless cattle baron on the Mexican side of the river, Guadalupe Chavez. The two rustle each others' cattle, raiding and killing on both sides of the border, heading for a bloody showdown -- with the Texas Rangers standing between them.

Aging cowboy and bronco-buster Wes Hendricks just wants to be left alone on his poor ranch, even when town developers offer him big money to sell it. Wes's grandson reluctantly tries to convince him to give up his home, but that was before he, too, succumbs to the ranch's--and a young cowgirl's--wild beauty.

In "Joe Pepper, "the titular character, while awaiting a hangman's noose, tells the story of how he discovered a propensity for violence while seeking revenge. The irony is that Joe's keen sense of justice puts him on he wrong side of the law.
"Long Way to Texas," taking place just after the Civil War battle of Glorieta Pass in New Mexico, is the story of Lt. David Buckalew, whose remnant of Confederate riflemen is under siege and low on rations and water. Complicating matters is the young officer's self-doubt and fear of failure.
Thomas Canfield of "Eyes of the Hawk, "known to the Mexican citizens of his town of Stonehill, Texas, as "El Gavilan"--the Hawk--is not a man to forgive a wrong. He sets out to prove this to an insolent ranchman rival who intends to build a fortune at Canfield's expense. The Hawk has a radically different idea: he will destroy the town before yielding to his enemy.
This omnibus edition of three novels by Elmer Kelton features an introduction by Dale L. Walker, author of twenty-three novels and a past president of the Western Writers of America.

Welcome to Judge Roy Bean Country! The landscape is big enough and wild enough to contain any legend even one the size of Judge Roy Bean. Jack Skiles started with a determination to learn the truth behind the legend of Judge Roy Bean. Armed with a second-hand tape recorder in the 1960s, he interviewed Texas Rangers, ranchers, treasure hunters, and any Langtry old-timer with a good memory and a story to tell about the Judge. Forty years later, with a lifetime pursuing the truth, Skiles weaves that oral history and solid historical research into a compelling panorama of this harsh, forbidding land West of the Pecos. ""Judge Roy Bean Country"" sets right some of the most enduring myths about the Judge and Langtry. But here along the Rio Grande in the rugged Chihuahuan Desert there are many more tales to tell of heroes, villains, adventure, humor, and pure misery from the romantic Old West. Following Langtry native son Jack Skiles into the land West of the Pecos, prepare to meet one old reprobate by the name of Judge Roy Beanand history-telling at its very best.

"Reading Kathy Greenwood's account of growing up on a small ranch in southeastern New Mexico, I kept wondering where she had heard the story of my life. From her ill-starred introduction into the fine art of milking a recalcitrant Jersey cow to her uneasy homecoming from graduate school, she kept reflecting incidents out of my own West Texas experience. In many ways she reflects the life of almost everyone--man or woman--who has grown up on a ranch . . . She writes with a sparkle and a keen wit."--Elmer Kelton Heart-Diamond describes the author's experiences growing up on a working cattle ranch in Southeastern New Mexico. In a series of sketches that begins with an incident in her childhood and concludes with her return to the ranch after a lengthy absence, the book features various members of her family in settings and situations typical of daily life not only on the Heart-Diamond but on any small, family-operated ranch: rounding up cattle, fixing windmills, helping a heifer to calve. At the same time that the sketches celebrate western culture and the love that holds the family together, their touch is light and humorous. As a book written from a woman's point of view, Heart-Diamond offers some unique commentary on the "cowboy" way of life.

Ranching families reflect a deeply rooted agricultural tradition the day-to-day workings of which have changed little over generations. Many of these children are accomplished farm hands by the age of six or seven and already contributing members of the family business. In this world, work skills define one's identity, and 'making a hand' is the goal of every young cowboy/girl. This book is a tribute to the newest generation of ranchers growing up in New Mexico. Gene Peach has photographed girls and boys from fifty ranching families representing diverse cultural backgrounds, as they work cattle from horseback, perform routine ranch chores, and compete in rodeos. Veteran western writer and cowboy Max Evans writes about his own experiences growing up on a ranch and ponders the realities threatening the continuation of the family ranch. Making a Hand is a testament to a remarkable generation of New Mexico residents continuing a legendary and honourable lifestyle.

Caprock, Texas, is a sleepy cow town until oil is discovered in the 1920s. Suddenly thousands of people stream in to find their fortune. Some are honest folk like Elise and Victor Underwood, who pray for a little luck with their daily bread. But too many are two-bit swindlers. And then there's frontier mobster Big Boy Daugherty. Sheriff Dave Buckalew faces a whole different set of circumstances as his town springs to life -- in good and not-so-good ways.

The town of Caprock is loosely based on Crane in West Texas, where Kelton grew up, although Crane did not exist until the oil boom.

Honor at Daybreak represents a departure for Kelton. There is no single dominant figure. Although Sheriff Buckalew represents a quiet strength that binds his town together, this is a book in which an entire community joins together to save itself.

'A veritable Whos Who of pioneer cattlemen' - Elmer Kelton, from the Foreword. John and Mahlon Thatcher were two of the many pioneers looking to begin a new life in the great open spaces of the West. In the 1860s, the brothers began a small mercantile in the town of Pueblo, Colorado. From a safe in the corner of their new store, the brothers founded what was to become the First National Bank of Pueblo, Colorado and the beginnings of a financial empire that would encompass cattle companies from New Mexico to Canada. Together with such legendary figures as Frank Bloom, Henry Cresswell, O. H. Perry Baxter, William Anderson, Burton Mossman, and Mahlon T. Everhart, they created a cattle empire, financing and directing the Bloom Land and Cattle Company, the Diamond A Cattle Company, and the Hatchet Cattle Company. Their herds of cattle, horses, and sheep ranged on some eleven million acres of land. ""Great Plains Cattle Empire"" tells their stories, spanning the years from just after the Civil War through World War II. Paul E. Patterson managed the Diamond A Cattle Company for twenty-six years. His work has appeared in ""Field and Stream"", ""New Mexico Magazine"", ""Western Horseman"", and other publications. Joy Poole is former director of the Fort Collins Museum in Colorado.

'An outstanding contribution to the historiography of the American West and likely will remain for a long time the definitive work on the Texas Panhandle' - Ernest Wallace. 'As one born in the region, Rathjen is sympathetic to it, but he is also understanding of it; there is little Chamber of Commerce stuff in his story' - Robert G. Athearn. The Texas Panhandleits eastern edge descending sharply from the plains into the canyons of Palo Duro, Tule, Quitaque, Casa Blanca, and Yellow House is as rich in history as it is in natural beauty. Long considered a crossroads of ancient civilizations, the twenty-six northernmost Texas counties lie on the southern reaches of the Great Plains, where numerous dry creek beds and the Canadian River have carved the region appropriately named the High Plains. Through these plains and their canyons, ancient peoples trailed game for the hunt. The Panhandle provided choice grazing lands for bison, and as the region became more familiar to ancient tribes, semipermanent camps marked the landscape. Yet when Coronado's conquistadores crossed the High Plains in search of fabled wealth and found sun-baked adobe instead of gold, they declared the region a wasteland. Likewise, the Republic of Texas found little use for their vast plains land considering settlement of the frontier far too dangerous. Not until the late-nineteenth century, as the U.S. Army waged war on the Comanches, Kiowas, and Cheyennes who lived there, did Panhandle tracts of frontier open to hard-bitten settlers who had to prove themselves as indomitable as they were land hungry. Departing from the premise that the Panhandle frontier 'is but a brush stroke on...[the] much larger canvas' of previous frontier histories, Rathjen challenges the work of Frederick Jackson Turner and Walter Prescott Webb, and proves that regional is by no means synonymous with provincial.

Elmer Kelton writes of his beloved home country of West Texas in these two novels of cowmen and cow country.In "Pecos Crossing," two young cowboys, Johnny Fristo and Speck Quitman, have been cheated of six months' hard-earned salary by their rancher boss Larramore and intend getting what is due to them. In "Shotgun," Texas rancher Blair Bishop has to contend with a rival cowman who is turning his herd loose on Bishop's land, and with a mean customer named Macy Modock, who Bishop sent to prison ten years past. Modock is out of the hoosegow and has returned determined to get even with the man who sent him up the river.