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.

During much of his brief and troubled life, Victor Marion Rose was a walking anomaly. The scion of a venerable Texas farming and ranching family, he was widely reported to be unable to distinguish one horse from another. He fought for the Confederacy and endured imprisonment at Ohio’s notorious Camp Chase, yet he later bitterly decried the Civil War as utter folly for the South. His florid poetry often celebrated the feminine mystique and ideal as he considered it, yet he was infamously unfaithful and sometimes abusive in his relationships with women. He built a respected reputation as a journalist and historian, and at the same time, he struggled with alcoholism and bouts of deep depression. Born in 1842 as the third of thirteen children of a wealthy Victoria, Texas, planter, Victor Marion Rose served as publisher and editor of the Victoria Advocate from 1869 to 1873 before moving to Laredo—reportedly due to a scandalous love affair—where he edited the Laredo Times. He also wrote volumes of poetry and published several histories of South Texas and the biography of Gen. Ben McCulloch. Rose ultimately succumbed to pneumonia in February 1893. Louise S. O’Connor, a descendant of Victor Marion Rose, has mined family records and recorded family traditions about “Uncle Vic.” She carefully reviewed Rose’s collected papers, both in her personal possession and in the archives of the Briscoe Center for American History and other repositories. Wild Rose provides an intimate portrait of a complicated individual who, despite his frequently unsuccessful struggles with his demons, nevertheless left an important mark on Texas history and letters.

Writers and Writings of Texas.

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.

Chuck Parsons and Norman Wayne Brown are noted experts on the life and times of John Wesley Hardin. They have written numerous books and magazine articles covering the topic from all angles and in such respected publications as True West, Frontier Times, and The Tombstone Epitaph. Their biography, A Lawless Breed: John Wesley Hardin, Texas Reconstruction and Violence in the Wild West (Denton: UNT Press, 2013) was relevant about John Wesley Hardin and his siblings at the time. Since then, they learned where John Wesley Hardin was really born, found that Gip Hardin did not die at sea, discovered a rare letter penned by Reverend Hardin to son Joe's widow, Belle, additional evidence surrounding John Wesley Hardin's death in El Paso, 1895, and much more. Some of the new discovered information was reported in articles published by True West, The Tombstone Epitaph, and Journal of Wild West History Association. Some articles have not been published. It seems bad blood ran though the veins of the Hardin brothers and many who associated with them. Hopefully you will find this collection worthwhile in addition to their knowledge of why the "breed" of John Wesley Hardin seemed so lawless.

Young Texas Ranger Andy Pickard sets out to arrest a trader accused of killing a horse thief, but finds the case complicated by the trader's honor-bound nature, a situation that makes Andy wonder if he is fighting on the right side.

Excerpt from The Texas Vendetta: Or, the Sutton-Taylor Feud It was not long before their disrespect for the august magnate at Austin was exemplified, to his satisfaction. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.