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.
