THE TIME IT NEVER RAINED.
Garden City: Doubleday & Co., 1973. 373 pp. Tan cloth with title in black ink on the spine. First edition. Externally, small bumps to the corners. Internally, there is a non-authorial inscription. The dust jacket shows general wear, some soiling and fading to spine (see scans). Overall, a good+ copy. Elmer Kelton: “The Time It Never Rained was inspired by actual events, when the longest and most severe drought in living memory pressed ranchers and farmers to the outer limits of courage and endurance.” Dee Brown (Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee): “Elmer Kelton does not write Westerns. He writes fine novels set in the West.” The main character, Charlie Flagg, is an honest, hardworking West Texas rancher. Refusing the questionable “help” of federal aid programs, he and his family struggle to make the ranch survive until it rains again—if it does. Kelton is a man who knows his subject extremely well. I think this is some of his best work.
