The Time It Never Rained (Chisholm Trail Series) [Paperback]

Elmer Kelton (Author), Tom Pilkington (Afterword)

Book Description

Series: Chisholm Trail Series | Publication Date: January 1, 1984

The earth lay dying. Crops dried up, and fertile soil dissolved into clouds of yellow. Ranchers did everything within their power, and federal forces were called in fruitlessly. Only Charlie Flagg, old-time Texas cattleman, saw it as a fight worth continuing--and refused to give up his battle against Nature.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“Elmer Kelton does not write Westerns.  He writes fine novels set in the West. Here a reader meets flesh-and-blood people of an earlier time, in a story that will grab and hold you from the first to the last page.”—Dee Brown, author of Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee on The Time It Never Rained

"The Time It Never Rained is not just one of the best novels ever written by a Texan. It is one of the treasures of American literature..." -- John Erickson, author of The Devil in Texas and the "Hank the Cowdog" series

"...one of the dozen or so best novels written by an American in this century." --- Jon Tuska, editor of The American West in Fiction on The Time It Never Rained

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

About the Author

Elmer Kelton (1926-2009) was the award-winning author of more than forty novels, including Other Men’s Horses, Texas Standoff and Hard Trail to Follow. He grew up on a ranch near Crane, Texas, and earned a journalism degree from the University of Texas. His first novel, Hot Iron, was published in 1956. Among his awards have been seven Spurs from Western Writers of America and four Western Heritage awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. His novel The Good Old Boys was made into a television film starring Tommy Lee Jones. In addition to his novels, Kelton worked as an agricultural journalist for 42 years, and served in the infantry in World War II. He died in 2009.

--This text refers to the Mass Market Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Paperback: 378 pages
• Publisher: Texas Christian University Press (January 1, 1984)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0912646896
• ISBN-13: 978-0912646893
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 5.9 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (27 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #182,578 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Elmer Kelton of San Angelo, Texas is a native Texan and author of over 50 Western novels. He has won many awards for his work and has been recognized as the Greatest Western Writer of all time by the Western Writers of America, Inc. He is the author of Forge's Texas Ranger series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Lot More Than A Western!, July 31, 2005

By 

Howard L. Dixon (Hopewell, VA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Time It Never Rained (Mass Market Paperback)

Elmer Kelton was rightfully honored with a number of awards for this thoughtful piece of work originally published in 1973. While it is about ranchers trying to survive in one of those long droughts that seem to come more and more frequent to the West and particularly the Southwest it is much more than a story of survival. The nearest community in the book is called Rio Seco and while it only exists in our mind's eye Kelton describes it well enough that it could be one of thousands such communities scattered across Texas and the West. What came to my mind as he described it is the movie from a number of years ago called, "The Last Picture Show". The book is a beautiful study of evolving and conflicting cultures on so many levels. Kelton does a fine job of laying out the past and showing the future of changes between Angelo and Hispanic to include the continuing question of undocumented immigrants. Another is the "old school" way of looking at things rather than the new way. One of the focal points of the book is the role that government aid plays in changing groups such as ranchers forever. The "hero" (and I'm sure he never considered himself a hero of any kind) of the book, Charlie Flagg refuses the aid and thereby creates tension for himself and others around him. What's amazing, and something to which I consider an honor, is that I was reared in a time and community to have known men just like Charlie Flagg. This book has been re-published several times and I can understand why. Really much of what you read in "The Time It Never Rained" is timeless while other parts provide a beautiful look to the middle of the last century in Texas. While it's considered a western it's far from a "shoot'em up". Other of his books go there but that's for another review.

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Time It Never Rained, March 19, 2005

By 

Shannon H. Geddie (Sterling, Virginia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Time It Never Rained (Mass Market Paperback)

Being a Texan in Texas during the drought Elmer Kelton describes in The Time It Never Rained, he seems to write about it first hand. I remember the deluge that ended the drought, and it was the experience I remember. I worked at the San Angelo Standard-Times while Mr. Kelton did, and his day to day newspaper work was a preview to his books to come. He has West Texas nailed down to a T, and I love all his books. But this one especially strikes home.

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Drought, civilization and compromise, June 9, 2004

By 

Jack Purcell (Placitas, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Time It Never Rained (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is unlike any of Kelton's other works. The time setting is the 1950s and the seven-year drought we experienced during those years. The plot/theme is the end of the era of independence and freedom among cow men ... the time when they told themselves the drought forced them to sell themselves to the government to receive hay in return for their souls and their pasts.

I think of this book as a companion read to Abbey's, Brave Cowboy and McMurtry's, Hud (the book). All three writers were capturing a time and an attitude representing an end of an era when ranchers continued to curse the government out of habit while accepting welfare money as gracefully as the city poor they despised for doing so.

Kelton's book is as good as the other two, maybe better.