Small Town Author (Voice in the American West)

Small Town Author (Voice in the American West)

More than fifty years ago, John R. Erickson took a vow of discipline. Every day, he would retreat to some quiet place and write for four hours. For nearly as many years, readers have eagerly awaited the fruits of those labors, whether they be in the form of Hank the Cowdog installments or other books on ranching and the writing life in Texas. Small Town Author documents the journey of a young man eager to escape his Panhandle childhood to the adult who returned to write books for the rural readers he had previously scorned. The hurricane years of the '60s swept young Erickson to Denver, Austin, Cambridge, New York, and back. From big city to small town, from social activist to flunky bartender, from church work to ranch work, from literary aspirations to self-publishing, this winding path gave contemporary literature one of its singular voices. Erickson’s journey as an artist also intersected with much of the Texas literati. He documents his memories of J. Evetts Haley, Larry McMurtry, Al Dewlen, Elmer Kelton, and many others. While a story about literature and writers, Small Town Author also considers universal questions of how we come of age, how leaving home changes us, and how returning can make us whole.  “In a nutshell, John R. Erickson’s Small Town Author focuses on writing in and about familiar surroundings. Erickson communicates how he left his sheltered roots for university life in the 1960s and decided he wanted to be a writer. . . [but] it was on the farm, driving a tractor, with a spiral notebook attached to his thigh with bands of rubber, that he began to truly write. He wrote in the barn, a toolshed, and a bunkhouse. He established his writing style and discipline while communicating with salt-of-the-earth locals and famers, surrounded by animals and agriculture. . . . The popular Hank the Cowdog series has brought humor to countless adults and children, including Erickson’s own.” —Deena Bouknight,  The Epoch Times (October 2025) John R. Erickson was born in Midland and grew up in Perryton, graduated from the University of Texas, and studied two years at Harvard Divinity School. He is best known for his Hank the Cowdog books. The series has grown to eighty-two volumes that have sold more than 10 million copies. He has been inducted into the Texas Literary Hall of Fame. He has previously published two books with Texas Tech University Press: Bad Smoke, Good Smoke: A Texas Rancher’s View of Wildfire (2024) and Porch Talk: A Conversation About Archaeology in the Texas Panhandle (2022). He and his wife Kris have been married since 1967 and live on their ranch in Roberts County.