With Hot Iron and The Time It Never Rained, this omnibus by legendary Western writer Elmer Kelton offers two complete novels of the American West at one low price Hot Iron In the early days of the Texas panhandle, starting a new life is hard, but keeping it is even harder. Espy Norwood is a troubleshooter already wrestling with a slew of problems when he lands a job on a ranch on the Texas plains—and more trouble finds him. Bitter landowners plot against him, determined cattle thieves sneak right under his nose, and his own son refuses to trust or even know him. Can he catch the thieves, save the ranch, and win his son’s love? The Time It Never Rained To the ranchers and farmers of 1950s Texas, man’s greatest enemy is one he can’t control. With entire livelihoods pegged on the chance of a wet year or a dry year, drought has the ability to crush whole enterprises, to determine who stands and falls, and to rob workers and their families of food. To Charlie Flagg, an honest, decent, and cantankerous rancher, the drought of the early 1950s is a foe he must fight on his own grounds. Refusing the questionable “help” of federal aid programs, Charlie and his family struggle to make the ranch survive until the time it rains again—if it ever will. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

"The Time It Never Rained was inspired by actual events, when the longest and most severe drought in living memory pressed ranchers and farmers to the outer limits of courage and endurance."—Elmer Kelton, Seven-time Spur Award-winning author Rio Seco was too small to afford a professional manager for its one-room Chamber of Commerce. And Rio Seco, meaning "dry river" in Spanish, symbolizes the biggest enemy of the ranchers and farmers in 1950s Texas, an enemy they can't control: drought. To cranky Charlie Flagg, an honest, decent rancher, the drought of the early 1950s is a battle that he must fight on his own grounds. Refusing the questionable "assistance" of federal aid programs and their bureaucratic regulations, Charlie and his family struggle to make the ranch survive until the time it rains again—if it ever rains again. Charlie Flagg, among the strongest of Elmer Kelton's memorable creations, is no pasteboard hero. He is courageous and self-sufficient but as real as his harsh and unforgiving West Texas home country. His battle with an unfathomable foe is the stuff of epics and legends. 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.

In the early days of the Texas panhandle, Espy Norwood is a troubleshooter who's got troubles of his own. Bitter landowners plot against him, determined cattle thieves sneak right under his nose, and his own son refuses to trust or even know him. Can he catch the thieves, save the ranch, and win his son's love? Reissue.

In the early days of the Texas panhandle, Espy Norwood is a troubleshooter who's got troubles of his own. Bitter landowners plot against him, determined cattle thieves sneak right under his nose, and his own son refuses to trust or even know him. Can he catch the thieves, save the ranch, and win his son's love? Reissue.

Hewey Calloway, one of the best-loved cowboys in all of Western fiction, returns in this novel of his younger years as he and his beloved brother Walter leave the family farm in 1889 to find work in the West Texas cow country. The brothers are polar opposites. Walter pines for a sedate life as a farmer, with wife and children; Hewey is a fiddle-footed cowboy content to work at six bits--75 cents--a day on the Pecos River ranch owned by the penny-pinching C.C. Tarpley. Hewey, who "usually accepted the vagaries of life without getting his underwear in a twist", is fun-loving and whiskey-drinking. He spends every penny he earns and regularly gets into trouble with his boss--and occasionally with the law--often dragging innocent Walter along. When Walter falls in love with a boarding house girl and begins dreaming of a farmer's life, Hewey jumps at the chance to rescue him from this fate worse than death. He convinces Walter to join him on a mission for Tarpley, driving 600 head of cattle from beyond San Antonio to the Double-C ranch on the Pecos. The journey is both memorable and dangerous: a murderous outlaw is searching for Hewey; and another ruthless character is determined to sabotage the cattle drive. When the drovers reach the Pecos they find Boss Tarpley in the midst of a vicious range feud with Eli Jessup, a neighboring cowman. Hewey and his brother Walter have to get the herd safely across Jessup's land-but how? The events of Six Bits a Day precede those of Kelton's bestselling The Good Old Boys (1978, transformed into the memorable 1995 movie starring Tommy Lee Jones and Sissy Spacek), and The Smiling Country (Forge, 1998). At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Paperback Quarterly, A Journal for Paperback Collectors, Volume 1 Number 2, Summer 1978, contains: "P. Q. Interview with Elmer Kelton," "Collecting Armed Service Editions," by Charlotte Laughlin, "The Green Door Mystery," by Howard Waterhouse, "P. Q. Interview with Jada Davis," and "Almuric or 'Edgar Rice Burroughs Visits the Hyborian Age, '" by Michael T. Smith.