In Stand Proud, one of his most controversial novels, legendary Western writer Elmer Kelton takes on a character who is not as easy to like as he is to admire.

The Texas Frontier, 1865 The Civil War is over and Texas is reluctantly yielding to the Union soldiers spreading across the state, even into the dangerous Comanche country. David "Rusty" Shannon, proud member of a "ranging company" attempting to protect Texas settlers from Indian depredations, finds that the rangers are being disbanded. He makes his way home to his land on the Red River, hoping to take up the life of a farmer and the hand of the beloved girl he left behind, Geneva Monahan. But Geneva has married in Rusty's long absence and the country is filled with hostiles—not just Indians, but hate-filled Confederates, overbearing Union soldiers, and army renegades. Rusty's youth as a captive of the Comanches returns to haunt him when, in pursuit of Indian raiders, he takes as prisoner Badger Boy, a white child taken from his murdered parents by a Comanche warrior. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Repub. of Doubleday 1973 edition, with new introductions by Kelton and an afterword.

Texas Vendetta, fifth in Elmer Kelton's memorable and critically acclaimed Texas Rangers series, is filled with the author's always engaging characters and is set against the historically accurate backdrop of the turmoil of post-Civil War Texas. Ranger privates Andy Pickard, the onetime Comanche captive called Badger Boy, and the war-anguished Farley Brackett, are assigned to deliver a prisoner to the sheriff of a county some distance from the ranger camp on the San Saba River. The prisoner, Jayce Landon, has recently killed a man named Ned Hopper and is to stand trial for murder. The rangers quickly learn that the Landon and Hopper families are involved in a blood feud and that Jayce Landon is the target of both clans: the Landons want to rescue him and the Hoppers want to kill him. Worse, Jayce is to be delivered, jailed, and tried for murder in Hopper's Crossing, a settlement owned, populated, and run by the family dedicated to killing Jayce and all his Landon kin. The young rangers soon encounter the main figures in the hate-filled Hopper clan -Big'un, a huge lout who is deputy sheriff at Hopper's Crossing, and Judd Hopper, county judge and patriarch of the family. And when Jayce escapes, hell breaks loose with the rangers caught between the warring factions. Andy Pickard, reunited with his old mentor, retired ranger Rusty Shannon, has another problem or two to deal with. He is worried about Scooter Tennyson, a young son of an outlaw who has been "adopted" by the rangers at their San Saba River camp and who earns his way as a cook's helper. Scooter's father, now released from prison, has come to take his son back-and into a life on the run. And Andy has a growing affection for Bethel Brackett, sister of his worrisome partner, Farley. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In Bitter Trail, Kelton tells the story of a tough teamster named Frio Wheeler whose wagons haul cotton from Texas to Mexico. Sounds like a peaceable enterprise? The problem is that the Civil War is raging throughout the South and Wheeler's cotton is to be sold for gold--gold used to buy guns and ammunition for the Confederate army. And, added to his balky mules, the broiling heat, and killing drought of the Mexican dessert, Wheeler has even more serious matters to contend with: His wagons are attacked, his cotton bales are burned, he is captured and tortured by bandidos in league with Union sympathizers, and he is betrayed by his best friend--his former partner and brother of the woman he loves! At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In 1999, with Forge's publication of The Buckskin Line, Elmer Kelton launched a series of novels on the formative years of the Texas Rangers. In Texas Justice, the first three of these critically acclaimed books are now brought together in a single volume. In The Buckskin Line, Kelton introduces the red-haired boy captured by a Comanche war party after the massacre of his family. Rescued by Mike Shannon, a member of a Texas "ranging company" protecting settlers from Indian raids, the boy known as Rusty is adopted by the Shannon family. In 1861, Mike Shannon is ambushed and killed, and Rusty follows in his footsteps and joins the Rangers. In the throes of the coming War Between the States, Rusty searches for the Confederates who lynched his adoptive father and awaits meeting the Comanche warrior who killed his family two decades past. At the end of the Civil War, Rusty Shannon is thrown adrift when the Rangers are disbanded, and makes his way to his home on the Red River, where he hopes to marry the girl he left behind, Geneva Monahan. But as Badger Boy, the second novel of the saga, unfolds, Geneva has married another man in Rusty's absence. Faced with this betrayal, he must contend with the hate-filled Confederate and Union soldiers infesting Texas and with the continuing Indian raids against innocent settlers. Rusty's own childhood captivity returns to haunt him when he rescues Andy, a white child called Badger Boy by his Comanche captors. In The Way of the Coyote, Andy rides with Rusty Shannon as the Rangers are re-formed in postwar turmoil. With Texas overrun with outlaws, disenfranchised Confederate veterans, nightriders, and marauding Comanche bands, Rusty tries to resume his pre-war life. When his friend Shanty, a freed slave, is burned out of his home by Ku Klux Klan and Rusty's own homestead is confiscated by a murderous band of thugs, he must follow perilous trails before he can put the war and its aftermath behind him. Texas Justice is not only a masterful re-creation of the early years of the Texas Rangers, it is vintage Elmer Kelton, the undisputed master of the Western story. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A different kind of range war erupts between cowboys and ranchers in The Day the Cowboys Quit from seven-time Spur Award-winning author Elmer Kelton. The time is 1883, the place is the Texas Panhandle. Cowboys refuse to be stigmatized as drinkers and exploited by the wealthy cattle owners who don't pay liveable wages. Those very same ranchers want to take away the cowboys' right to own cattle because this ownership, the ranchers believe, would lead to thieving. So the dictum is set: If you're a cowboy, you can't own a cow. When rumors of such legislation travel from wagon to wagon, the cowboys decided to rally and fight for their rights--they gather together and strike. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

In the Texas backlands in 1885, twelve-year-old Joey Shipman's father dies under mysterious circumstances, and the boy is forced to live with his stepmother and Blair Meacham, a hanger-on at the farm. After the death of a black farmhand and friend, and another "accident" that almost takes Joey's life, the boy runs away and joins forces with his only kin--Beau Shipman, a drunk and a jailbird. Beau, along with an outlaw, a San Antonio prostitute, and a sheepman, become Joey's unlikely partners as he is trailed by their murderous Meacham , in league with Joey's stepmother in their scheme to inherit the Shipman farm.

Elmer Kelton, voted "The Greatest Western Writer of All Time" by the Western Writers of America, is a legend in the field of Western literature. Famous for his realistic characters and accurate depictions of the history of his home state of Texas, Elmer Kelton continues to write exceptional novels of American history. In Hanging Judge, Justin Moffitt is eager to help keep the peace as a deputy marshal in small-town Texas. That is, until Justin is assigned to the wrong marshal-a "hanging judge" who is as famous for his ruthlessness as he is for his commitment to justice. When Justin's boss hangs a controversial criminal, Justin must defend himself against an army of friends and relatives, desperate for revenge. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Rancher Blair Bishop of Two Forks, Texas, has too many enemies . . . and they are closing in on him. Macy Modock, whom Bishop sent to prison ten years ago, is out of the hoosegow. Modock is returning to Two Forks along with his sidekick, who is known to be a mean gunman. Also arrayed against Bishop is rival cowman Clarence Cass, who is running his animals on Bishop's land. Complicating matters, Cass's daughter, Jessie, and Bishop's son, Allan, are in love. Macy Modock, determined to get even with the man who sent him to prison, schemes with Cass to ruin Bishop. The black-hearted pair lay claim to untitled lands Bishop uses to graze his cattle – a plan that leads to a deadly confrontation in which two men will die. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.