Elmer Kelton Reading Order

10 books (1991–2010)

Start with Horsing Around, the first of 10 books in the Anthologies series.

#	Title
1	Horsing Around 1991Buy 🇺🇸
2	New Trails: Twenty-Three Original Stories 1994Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Best of the American West II 1999Buy 🇺🇸
4	A Century of Great Western Stories 2001Buy 🇺🇸
5	Lone Star Law 2005Buy 🇺🇸
6	Noah’s Ride 2006Buy 🇺🇸
7	Lost Trails 2007Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Way of the West 2008Buy 🇺🇸
9	Ghost Towns 2010Buy 🇺🇸
10	Law of the Gun 2010Buy 🇺🇸

2 books (1965–1967)

Start with Massacre at Goliad and read in order.

#	Title
1	Massacre at Goliad 1965Buy 🇺🇸
2	After the Bugles 1967Buy 🇺🇸

4 books (1982–2022)

Start with The Good Old Boys, the first of 4 books in the Hewey Calloway series.

#	Title
1	The Good Old Boys 1982Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Smiling Country 1998Buy 🇺🇸
3	Six Bits a Day 2005Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Unlikely Lawman(By: Steve Kelton) 2022Buy 🇺🇸

14 books (1972–2020)

Start with Looking Back West: Selections form the Pioneer News-Observer, the first of 14 books in the Non-Fiction series.

#	Title
1	Looking Back West: Selections form the Pioneer News-Observer 1972Buy 🇺🇸
2	Elmer Kelton: 30 Years of Western Fiction 1985Buy 🇺🇸
3	Permian: A Continuing Saga 1985Buy 🇺🇸
4	Living and Writing in West Texas: Two Speeches 1990Buy 🇺🇸
5	The Art of Frank C. McCarthy 1992Buy 🇺🇸
6	The Art of Howard Terpning 1992Buy 🇺🇸
7	Elmer Kelton Country: The Short Nonfiction of a Texas Novelist 1993Buy 🇺🇸
8	The Art of James Bama 1993Buy 🇺🇸
9	My Kind of Heroes: Selected Speeches 1995Buy 🇺🇸
10	Texas 1995Buy 🇺🇸
11	Texas Cattle Barons: Their Families, Land and Legacy 1999Buy 🇺🇸
12	Prairie Gothic(By: John R. Erickson) 2005Buy 🇺🇸
13	Sandhills Boy: The Winding Trail of a Texas Writer 2007Buy 🇺🇸
14	Tom Lovell: Storyteller with a Brush 2020Buy 🇺🇸

8 books (1986–2021)

Start with The Big Brand, the first of 8 books in the Short Story Collections series.

#	Title
1	The Big Brand 1986Buy 🇺🇸
2	There's Always Another Chance, and Other Stories 1986Buy 🇺🇸
3	Legend 1999Buy 🇺🇸
4	ReadWest 2011Buy 🇺🇸
5	Wild West 2017Buy 🇺🇸
6	Hard Ride 2018Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Cowboy Way 2020Buy 🇺🇸
8	Law of the Land 2021Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (1989–1989)

Start with Sons of Texas and read in order.

#	Title
1	Sons of Texas 1989Buy 🇺🇸
2	The Raiders 1989Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Rebels 1989Buy 🇺🇸

25 books (1956–2008)

Start with Hot Iron, the first of 25 books in the Standalone Novels series.

#	Title
1	Hot Iron 1956Buy 🇺🇸
2	Buffalo Wagons 1957Buy 🇺🇸
3	Bitter Trail 1959Buy 🇺🇸
4	Texas Rifles 1960Buy 🇺🇸
5	Donovan 1961Buy 🇺🇸
6	Horsehead Crossing 1963Buy 🇺🇸
7	Pecos Crossing 1963Buy 🇺🇸
8	Savage Guns(With: Brian Garfield,Alex Hawk) 1968Buy 🇺🇸
9	Shotgun Settlement(With: Brian Garfield,Alex Hawk) 1969Buy 🇺🇸
10	Bowie's Mine 1971Buy 🇺🇸
11	The Time It Never Rained 1973Buy 🇺🇸
12	Barbed Wire 1980Buy 🇺🇸
13	Eyes of the Hawk 1981Buy 🇺🇸
14	Llano River 1982Buy 🇺🇸
15	Shadow of a Star 1984Buy 🇺🇸
16	Hanging Judge 1988Buy 🇺🇸
17	Slaughter 1992Buy 🇺🇸
18	The Best Christmas 1993Buy 🇺🇸
19	The Indian in Frontier News 1993Buy 🇺🇸
20	The Far Canyon 1994Buy 🇺🇸
21	The Pumpkin Rollers 1996Buy 🇺🇸
22	Cloudy in the West 1997Buy 🇺🇸
23	Christmas at the Ranch 2003Buy 🇺🇸
24	Shotgun 2007Buy 🇺🇸
25	Many a River 2008Buy 🇺🇸

3 books (1968–1976)

Start with Captain's Rangers and read in order.

#	Title
1	Captain's Rangers 1968Buy 🇺🇸
2	Joe Pepper 1975Buy 🇺🇸
3	Long Way to Texas 1976Buy 🇺🇸

9 books (1999–2010)

Start with The Buckskin Line, the first of 9 books in the Texas Rangers series.

#	Title
1	The Buckskin Line 1999Buy 🇺🇸
2	Badger Boy 2001Buy 🇺🇸
3	The Way of the Coyote 2001Buy 🇺🇸
4	Ranger's Trail 2002Buy 🇺🇸
5	Jericho's Road 2004Buy 🇺🇸
6	Texas Vendetta 2004Buy 🇺🇸
7	Hard Trail To Follow 2008Buy 🇺🇸
8	Other Men's Horses 2009Buy 🇺🇸
9	Texas Standoff 2010Buy 🇺🇸

8 books (1971–1991)

Start with The Day the Cowboys Quit, the first of 8 books in the Texas Tradition series.

#	Title
1	The Day the Cowboys Quit 1971Buy 🇺🇸
2	Wagontongue 1972Buy 🇺🇸
3	Manhunters 1974Buy 🇺🇸
4	The Wolf and the Buffalo 1980Buy 🇺🇸
5	Stand Proud 1984Buy 🇺🇸
6	Dark Thicket 1985Buy 🇺🇸
7	The Man Who Rode Midnight 1987Buy 🇺🇸
8	Honor at Daybreak 1991Buy 🇺🇸