This image is the cover for the book Smiling Country, The Hewey Calloway Novels

Smiling Country, The Hewey Calloway Novels

The Spur Award-winning author revisits one of the most memorable characters in Western fiction in this “exceptional sequel” to The Good Old Boys (Booklist).

Elmer Kelton introduced Texas cowboy Hewey Calloway, one of the most beloved characters in Western fiction, almost thirty years ago in The Good Old Boys. The novel was transformed into a memorable 1995 TV film starring Tommy Lee Jones and Sissy Spacek. Now Hewey returns, older if not necessarily wiser, in The Smiling Country. 

It is 1910 and Hewey Calloway's freewheeling life is coming to an end. The fences, trucks, and automobiles he hates are creeping into the remote “smiling country” of West Texas. When he is badly injured trying to break a renegade horse, Hewey sees the loneliness that awaits him, and regrets his decision to run away from the only woman he has ever loved, the schoolteacher Spring Renfro.

Elmer Kelton

Elmer Kelton, author of more than forty novels, 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. For forty-two years he had a parallel career in agricultural journalism.

Among his awards have been seven Spurs from Western Writers of America and four Western Heritage awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. Among his best-known works have been The Time It Never Rained and The Good Old Boys, the latter made into a television film starring Tommy Lee Jones.

He served in the infantry in World War II. He and his wife, Ann, a native of Austria, live in San Angelo, Texas. They have three children, four grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.

Tom Doherty Associates