Elmer Kelton

Elmer Kelton died Aug. 22. He was 83. Although not well-known outside his native Texas, he was immensely popular in the Lone Star state.

Kelton, who maintained parallel careers as a journalist and a novelist, was the author of 62 books. The most famous was "The Good Old Boys," which was made into a movie starring Tommy Lee Jones. The Western Writers of America voted Kelton "Best Author of All Time." His novel "The Time It Never Rained," which literary critic Jon Tuska called "one of the dozen or so best novels written by an American in the 20th century," is among my all-time favorite novels.

Kelton said he like to take a character, put him in a time of change and transition and see what he did.

Judy Alter, his long-time publisher at TCU Press and author of "Elmer Kelton and West Texas: A Literary Relationship," penned his obituary for the Dallas Morning News Sunday. She wrote: "Elmer's characters were complex, never Western stereotypes, but his authentic voice was the most distinctive aspect of his writing, along with the same wry humor that characterized him in conversation. He shied away from happy endings because, he said, life doesn't work out like that."