The Pumpkin Rollers

New York: Forge, 1996. CS3 - A first edition (stated with complete numberline) hardcover book SIGNED and dated by Elmer Kelton on the half-title page in very good condition in very good dust jacket. Dust jacket and book have some bumped corners, light discoloration and shelf wear. In the cattle drives of the Old West, pumpkin rollers were green farmboys, almost more trouble than they were worth. 8.5"x5.75", 301 pages. Satisfaction Guaranteed. Elmer Kelton (Elmer Stephen Kelton) was an American journalist and writer, known particularly for his Western novels. His pseudonyms are: Tom Early, Alex Hawk, Lee McElroy. From 1948-1963, Kelton was the farm-and-ranch editor for the San Angelo Standard-Times in the Harte-Hanks chain. For five years, he was editor of Sheep and Goat Raiser Magazine and another 22 years he was editor of Livestock Weekly, from which he retired in 1990. His memoir, Sandhills Boy, was published in 2007. Three of his novels have been featured in Reader's Digest Condensed Books. Eight Kelton novels, Buffalo Wagons, The Day the Cowboys Quit, The Time It Never Rained, Eyes of the Hawk, Slaughter, The Far Canyon, Many a River, and The Way of the Coyote, have won Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America. Peers in the WWA also named him as the greatest Western writer of all time. Three other novels, 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, Oklahoma. The Good Old Boys was made into the Turner Network Television TV movie named The Good Old Boys (1995) starring Tommy Lee Jones. In 1977, Kelton received an Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement (named for Owen Wister, the author of The Virginian). In April 1997, the Texas State Legislature proclaimed "Elmer Kelton Day". In 1998, he received the first Lone Star Award for Lifetime Achievement from the Larry McMurtry Center for Arts and Humanities at Midwestern State University in Wichita Falls. Kelton received honorary doctorates from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene and Texas Tech University at Lubbock. Kelton also received a lifetime achievement award from the National Cowboy Symposium in Lubbock.[8] He is honored with a star in the sidewalk at the Fort Worth Stockyards in Fort Worth. . Signed by Author. First Edition. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. 8vo - over 7¾" - 9¾" tall.