From rodeos to rustlers, from ranch life to the outlaw trail, Elmer Kelton's take on the human condition shows us life in Texas as it was back then: simpler but harder, with danger always present. Filled with unforgettable characters and adventure, and imbued with a love of the time, the people, and the place, these stories take us from the earliest days of the Wild West well into the twentieth century, each one embodying a passion for life that's...

"Seventeen-year-old Wilsey Grant is on his own when he meets a traveler on foot. The two arrive in the town of Silver Grass, where the other man finds work washing dishes. Wilsey goes out to look for work and meets an indentured servant girl, an orphan like himself. Before long, the fellow traveler turns up dead. Wilsey goes to work at the nearby Emerald Peaks Ranch, where he hears of ranch hands terrorizing the settlers, and he witnesses the shooting...

"Shunted from his entrepreneurial ambitions to profit from the boomtowns of the frontier, Wyatt Earp returns to law enforcement. In Wichita, Kansas the town leaders become disenchanted with his hardline methods, and so he moves to a place where an iron rule is needed, Dodge City. With him comes Mattie Blaylock, a runaway prostitute, who, like Wyatt, is searching for a chance at a better life. As marshal in Dodge, Wyatt establishes a reputation as...

"1892 Comanche reservation in present-day southern Oklahoma near Fort Sill (Lawton); North Texas: Dallas, Fort Worth, and Albany"--

Lucas Fume has had plenty of fights in his life: spying for the Confederate Army, standing up to the railroad company when they tried to take his land, then getting framed for the murder of his business partner only to lose his land as well as the love of his life. But Lucas isn't finished fighting yet. With help from Ezekiel 'Zeke' Henry, a fellow inmate and former slave, Lucas manages to escape prison. Riding with Zeke to St. Louis, he soon discovers...

Federal Deputy Sullivan Hart arrived too late to rescue his father. But the elder Hart managed to identify his killers by scrawling "Los Pistoleros" in his own blood. This outlaw gang has been involved in everything from cattle rustling to running guns without getting caught. Hart aims to end that lucky streak. But he isn't the only one. Quick Charlie Sims, gambler and con man, has his own score to settle with Los Pistoleros. And he can't let Hart...