Best Reads (And They Aren't All Westerns)
Western writers share the books that most influenced their lives and craft.
Categories: Book Reviews
By: TW Editors 07/01/2007
“Only a generation of readers will span a generation of writers,” said Steven Spielberg, the man who first revealed his instinct for a good story with 1971’s Duel.
So who better to tell our readers the best reads ever than writers who have made their own transition from that “generation of readers” into the storytelling realm? We asked eight Western writers, all of whom tell various types of Western stories through the modes of fiction, nonfiction and screenplays. Western writers certainly love the West, but they don’t get inspired just by reading Westerns, so these lists include some surprises.
Elmer Kelton introduces the best reads with his reflective article on the books he has treasured in his life. This year sees the release of his memoir, Sandhill Boys, which traces the trail of the country boy into a journalist and writer. Kelton is a seven-time Spur winner and four-time Western Heritage winner, and the author of 46 novels, published over 50 years. His book, The Good Old Boys, was adapted into a TNT movie starring Tommy Lee Jones in 1995. His latest project, a Texas Ranger novel, Tough Trail to Follow, is due out in early 2008.
Elmer Kelton
Looking back, I believe the first book that left a lasting imprint on my life and career was Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson. When I was around age eight, it opened my eyes to the possibilities of books in carrying me off to grand adventures in other times, other lands, lifting me from the oblivion of a West Texas ranch where I was living and transporting me to anywhere my imagination could run free.
I read all the childhood classics, such as Hans Brinker, or The Silver Skates; The Wizard of Oz; Tom Sawyer;Huckleberry Finn, but I think Treasure Island was the one that moved me the most at the time. Our teacher began reading a bit each day, and I got so caught up in the suspense that I badgered my mother into buying a copy for me so I could read ahead. That was the first book I owned. I still have it.
A second highly influential book for me was Smoky the Cowhorse, by Will James. It reflected the cowboy life I saw around me, without the violence or the romance I was finding in other books of a Western nature. It helped me to decide that I wanted to write books myself and describe the kind of ranch life I knew. It led me to all the other Will James books I could lay my hands on.
A cousin introduced me to Zane Grey. I can’t single out one specific book, though I think the first I read was The Lost Wagon Train, or it might have been The U.P. Trail. At any rate, Zane Grey epitomized to me the mythical West that should have been. I devoured his books. I think the standout among them is Riders of the Purple Sage, with that magnificent rock-rolling scene at the end.
A book that chilled me as a youngster was The Hound of the Baskervilles, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. I’ll never forget the hair-raising line, “Mr. Holmes, they were the footprints of a gigantic hound.” That tome reinforced for me the notion that books can have a profound emotional effect.
I discovered J. Frank Dobie in my high school library, starting with The Longhorns. I was caught up in the mystique of that breed of cattle, which had such a strong historical and financial impact on Texas. My teachers had always downgraded most books of a Western nature. Dobie showed me that the history and folklore of one’s own area and one’s own people can be of as much value as books about New York, Paris or London. He stressed that all life has importance. Books like Dobie’s Coronado’s Children, about lost treasures real or imagined, deeply stirred my imagination and sense of wonder.
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