A warm tribute to Elmer Kelton

Books, books, books.

They are wonderful things with all sorts of knowledge and enjoyment between their covers.

We use our computers, but at our house we are and have been avid readers and users of books, both fiction and nonfiction.

We love the public library over other public places for the entertainment, pleasure and information we get from the many books and facilities.

Movies and television are fine but the stories in books are much better. Even the best movies can't cover everything the writer includes in truly good fiction.

We depend on the library for the many genres of fiction we enjoy - mysteries, Westerns, science fiction, adventure, historical, fantasy, animals - the list never ends.

I have always liked Western stories and often enjoyed Louis L'Amour (1908-1988), who was touted as the Western expert. He wrote interesting, enjoyable yarns and formula Western stories that were fun to read, but often lacking in accuracy.

Recently, I have been reading a Western writer who spins the best and most accurate Western stories I have ever read. Elmer Stephen Kelton (April 29, 1926 - August 22, 2009), who also used the pseudonym Lee McElroy, writes with the authority of one who has lived what he writes.

Seven of Kelton's 40 novels, "Buffalo Wagons," "The Day the Cowboys Quit," "The Day It Never Rained," "Eyes of the Hawk," "Slaughter," "The Far Canyon" and "The Way of the Coyote," have won Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America.

Three others, "City: The Time It Never Rained," "The Good Old Boys" and "The Man Who Rode Midnight," have received Western Heritage Awards from the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City, Okla.

"The Good Old Boys" was made into a Turner Network Television film, also named "The Good Old Boys" (1995) starring Tommy Lee Jones.

He was the winner of the 1957, 1971 and 1973 Spur Awards given by the Western Writers of America for Best Novel and was voted All-Time Best Western Author by the same organization.

He lives on in the hearts, minds and lives of his many readers and friends who mourned his passing just last month.

They will remember him always for the richness he brought into their lives with his many books with stories like "The Man Who Rode Midnight" and "City: The Time It Never Rained."

I recently enjoyed "Joe Pepper," Elmer Kelton's story of a condemned man about to be hung, as he tells a preacher about his life and sins.

The book kept me laughing with Kelton's revelations on the foibles of the human race.