Customer Reviews

The Buckskin Line

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Please, please don't pay any attention to that last reader. I don't know what genre he reads, but it is apparently not western. Elmer Kelton is one of the best western writers alive. This was a great example of his work.

I used to play The Virginian on television for nine years with many great actors. I read the work of many writers, and there are very few as good as Kelton for realism and grit. The only man who can match him is Kirby Jonas, whose books I record on audio. They call Jonas the New Louis L'Amour. But as far as I'm concerned, and I've seen this written elsewhere by other reviewers, you don't need any other writers than Kelton and Jonas. Give the Buckskin Line a chance! You won't be sorry. Then try Death of an Eagle, by Kirby Jonas.

If you want to know why the Western Writers of America have endowed Elmer Kelton with six Spur Awards and voted him greatest Western writer of all time, read THE BUCKSKIN LINE. The main character, Rusty Shannon, joins the Texas Rangers in a time before they were formally organized and glazed with glamour and prestige. Rusty's role with the Rangers takes a personal turn when he's forced to confront Buffalo Caller, the Comanche responsible for the slaying of his family during his boyhood. This encounter, along with the meeting of beautiful Geneva Monahan, casts the setting for another remarkable Kelton tale, character rich and full of Texas history. A must read, not just for fans of Western Literature, but for anyone who appreciates quality writing and a surefire adventure.

It's been ages since I've read a Western. The genre doesn't seem to be very popular these days. The library shelves are filled with Zane Gray and Louis L'Amour, as if they were still alive and pumping out the books. I wish L'Amour were still around - he's one of my favorite writers, and I've yet to read another Western author who enchanted me the way L'Amour did.
But I did find this little book at my local library, and decided to give it a try. I had seen other Kelton books but for whatever reason never checked them out. I should have - he's a fine writer.
This book is quite good. The subtitle says it's a novel about the Texas rangers, but that's not entirely accurate. The protagonist, Rusty Shannon, is a member of the fledgling ranger patrol, but the rangers aren't central to the plot.
The novel begins with a historic raid of a Texas coastal town by Comanches in 1840. A child with red hair is taken captive by a warrior, Buffalo Caller, but is rescued by Mike Shannon. Mike and his wife adopt the boy as his own. His Christian name is David, but everyone calls him Rusty because of his red hair.
The book skips forward to 1859, and again to the early 1860s and the outbreak of the Civil War. Mike is murdered, and Rusty attempts to kill who he thinks is the killer, but Preacher Webb talks him out of it and convinces him to join the rangers on a remote outpost. Rusty meets up with a solid family with a babe daughter about his age (you know where that's going), but the family is solid Union, while the local bully is a Confederate determined to rid Texas of Yankee traitors. And there's still Comanches hanging around and causing trouble.
I've greatly simplified the plot. This is not your typical shoot 'em up Western, though there is plenty of action. It's a thoughtful examination of duty and loyalty, of Rusty's struggles to do the right thing in a maelstrom of strong emotions and murky moral lines.
This is a solid book, well-written and thoroughly researched. It's too early to claim Kelton as a worthy heir to L'Amour, but I'm going to read more of his books just the same.

Elmer Kelton is great. That's all that really needs to be said. Every book he's ever written has been good, even though he'll humbly tell you the first ones weren't that good. He is far more believable than Louis L'Amour, who I grew up reading. His descriptive powers may not be quite as great, but he makes up for it. If you like Kelton and L'Amour, also check out Kirby Jonas, whom critics call the New Louis L'Amour. I think the time will come when he will be the name readers of the western seek out!

Kelton writes historical fiction that is stripped down to character types and action. He's done his homework, and there's a history lesson under the plotline, but this story cuts quickly and cleanly from one crisis to the next. As a writer, Kelton fearlessly chases his hero up a tree and then throws rocks at him, almost to the last page.

This first volume of his Texas Lone Star Trilogy introduces us to Rusty Shannon, a redheaded young man who joins the "buckskin line" of early Texas rangers during the time of the Civil War, when Comanches and whites still fought with much bloodshed for the right to inhabit the Texas frontier. There's also a world of animosity between secessionists and union loyalists, as young men march off either voluntarily or not to soldier for the Confederacy while others avoid conscription by fleeing westward onto the unsettled plains. The rangers, underpaid, poorly equipped and under-manned, operate chiefly as a ragged group of peacekeepers and law enforcers in the midst of all this turmoil.

That's the history. Exciting enough as that is, the adventure of Rusty Shannon and the parallel story of the Comanche, Buffalo Caller, ramp up the urgency of any reader's interest in what happens next and keep the pages turning. Recommended for readers of fact-based Western fiction who also enjoy the celebration of heroism against all odds.

For more history, finer character development, and greater emphasis on psychological realism, read Kelton's "The Day the Cowboys Quit," which for my money is a worthy successor to Owen Wister's "The Virginian."

First "western" I had read in years. Well worth it. It was my first Elmer Kelton book and would highly recommend it. Since this I am well into his other books.
Great Read

If the author of this book is "the greatest Western writer of all time", then it is time to leave the prairie. Seldom have I read a book so absolutely without highs or lows, of such flat descriptions that even a battle with the Comanches makes you yawn. While the characters have gnarled hands, black paint in their face and say 'ye god, they are absolutely two-dimensional. And the language! "Yonder come the yellow-legged soldiers". Where did he find that one? Some pony movie from the thirties? His typewriter must have run out of apostrophes by now.