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The Pumpkin Rollers
In the cattle drives of the Old West, pumpkin rollers were green farmboys, almost more trouble than they were worth.
When Trey McLean leaves his family's East Texas cotton farm and sets off on his own to learn the cattleman's trade, he's about as green as they come. But Trey learns fast. He learns about deceit when a con man cheats him out of his grubstake and about love when he meets the woman he's destined to marry.
And when luck finally sets him on a cattle drive to Kansas, Trey learns the trade from veteran drover Ivan Kerbow, but he also learns the code of violence and death from outlaw Jarrett Longacre, a man who will plague his life at every turn.
At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
When Trey McLean leaves his family's East Texas cotton farm and sets off on his own to learn the cattleman's trade, he's about as green as they come. But Trey learns fast. He learns about deceit when a con man cheats him out of his grubstake and about love when he meets the woman he's destined to marry.
And when luck finally sets him on a cattle drive to Kansas, Trey learns the trade from veteran drover Ivan Kerbow, but he also learns the code of violence and death from outlaw Jarrett Longacre, a man who will plague his life at every turn.
At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.
476 pages, Hardcover
First published March 1, 1996
23 people are currently reading
151 people want to read
About the author
Elmer Kelton
196 books257 followersElmer Kelton (1926-2009) was award-winning author of more than forty novels, including The Time It Never Rained, Other Men’s Horses, Texas Standoff and Hard Trail to Follow. He 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. Among his awards have been seven Spurs from Western Writers of America and four Western Heritage awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. His novel The Good Old Boys was made into a television film starring Tommy Lee Jones. In addition to his novels, Kelton worked as an agricultural journalist for 42 years. He served in the infantry in World War II. He died in 2009.
http://us.macmillan.com/author/elmerk...
http://us.macmillan.com/author/elmerk...
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews
May 5, 2021
this was my thought process on choosing this book for my western RA selection: "pumpkin rollers" sounds funny. cormac mccarthy writes westerns. suttree has some pumpkin scenes that illustrate the love a man can find with a gourd. maybe this one is similar.
it is not.
it's not a bad book, but honestly, until this point, my exposure to westerns had been clint eastwood, deadwood, and mccarthy. the lone man exacting justice, the occasional rape, lawlessness and some shakespearian dialogue. somehow, between this and the god of animals, i ended up with two coming-of-age stories neither of which felt the way i thought a western would/should feel, the main character such a pillar of moral behavior and unwritten codes. it's an idealized vision of the cowboy, his honor system and chivalry. yawn city.
there is of course the counterpoint of the outlaw, the rustler, the vigilante, but their stories get pushed out into the margins in favor of the young man's triumph over those who would swindle him and his unwavering devotion to proper behavior.
i always did want to smack gallant.
come to my blog!
it is not.
it's not a bad book, but honestly, until this point, my exposure to westerns had been clint eastwood, deadwood, and mccarthy. the lone man exacting justice, the occasional rape, lawlessness and some shakespearian dialogue. somehow, between this and the god of animals, i ended up with two coming-of-age stories neither of which felt the way i thought a western would/should feel, the main character such a pillar of moral behavior and unwritten codes. it's an idealized vision of the cowboy, his honor system and chivalry. yawn city.
there is of course the counterpoint of the outlaw, the rustler, the vigilante, but their stories get pushed out into the margins in favor of the young man's triumph over those who would swindle him and his unwavering devotion to proper behavior.
i always did want to smack gallant.
come to my blog! 
October 2, 2022
A “ quiet” western frontier and coming of age story by this author who I was recently introduced to by my Southern Literary group. Trey McLean is a farm boy ( Pumpkin Roller) who marries young and wants to become a cattle rancher but the remote Texas ranch they end up in is fraught with challenges.
3.5 stars
3.5 stars
August 14, 2018
"Whenever you see a milk cow, it's time for the cowboys to make room. The punkin' rollers are movin' in."
I think I liked the title more than the story, but I am still interested in reading more from this author.
I think I liked the title more than the story, but I am still interested in reading more from this author.
April 8, 2023
As always Kelton does not disappoint with Pumpkin Rollers!
This is a sweet but real and honest story about a young farmer making his way in cattle ranching with his wife by his side.
This is a sweet but real and honest story about a young farmer making his way in cattle ranching with his wife by his side.
August 16, 2022
Why (you may ask if you've looked at my profile) does a female in her 70s read so many Westerns? Well, first, because like all the early Baby Boomers, I was weaned on them. But mostly because, unlike so many fictions today, the best writers of them not only portray a place and time where most problems had a human scale and could be solved by direct (if sometimes violent) human action, but (like the best fiction of any kind) they show us how good people may sometimes do bad things, how people who do bad things aren't always irredeemable (and may have very good reasons for what they do), and how people who seem good are sometimes rotten to the core. Elmer Kelton, who was born and grew up in Texas, is quickly becoming one of my favorite of this kind of Western writer, up there with Luke Short and Peter Dawson.
Trey McLean is barely into his 20s when he decides that being the third son on the family's East Texas cotton farm is a recipe for getting nowhere fast. He's heard that somewhere "out west" a man can make a fortune in cattle. All he has to his name is one horse and what it can carry, plus four old but reliably pregnant cows. He figures that's a start.
He loses the cows within 100 miles, thanks to a dishonest stockman who claims they're his simply because they don't carry Trey's brand. (Trey bought them from different owners and never realized he should have registered one.) Desperate to make some money and get his bearings, he takes a job at a livery barn--and there meets the girl he'll marry, and Ivan Kerbow, a professional trail boss with a herd to get to Ellsworth. Amazingly, Trey takes to the work, and by the time the herd makes Kansas Kerbow is impressed enough with him to hire him to serve as on-site caretaker for Kerbow's own ranch, somewhere out west of Fort Griffin on the edge of the "cap rock," or Panhandle. On his way there, he marries the girl. And after that... things get complicated.
Kelton fills his story with characters you'll hate, characters you'll root for, and at least one you won't be quite sure of. There's Kerbow, whose ranch holds a secret; Jarrett Longacre, who starts out on Kerbow's crew, ends up wanted, and yet has a powerful personal code of ethics that not only saves Trey and his young wife but may be his own saving as well; Gault, the preacher-turned-manhunter who's resolved to bring Jarrett in dead or alive; a pair of nameless hired guns who decide that robbing the man who hired them (and returning the money they've already taken from Trey) is better suited to their natures than doing the man's bidding; Katy Rice, prostitute turned cattle thief (it's a cleaner way to live, by and large, in her opinion); George Blackman, the McLeans' nearest neighbor, and his son Adam; and Mead Overstreet, who turns out not to be as nice a person as he'd like everyone to think. Along the way Trey gets his own back, makes friends, and learns a lot about human nature, about good and bad and how neither one is as absolute as he thought; about how important it is to follow your own idea of right and wrong if you hope to go on living with yourself; and about the mystery of Kerbow's wife's death. If you haven't read any of Kelton's Westerns, this would be a good one to start with. I'm definitely looking for a copy to add to my personal library.
Trey McLean is barely into his 20s when he decides that being the third son on the family's East Texas cotton farm is a recipe for getting nowhere fast. He's heard that somewhere "out west" a man can make a fortune in cattle. All he has to his name is one horse and what it can carry, plus four old but reliably pregnant cows. He figures that's a start.
He loses the cows within 100 miles, thanks to a dishonest stockman who claims they're his simply because they don't carry Trey's brand. (Trey bought them from different owners and never realized he should have registered one.) Desperate to make some money and get his bearings, he takes a job at a livery barn--and there meets the girl he'll marry, and Ivan Kerbow, a professional trail boss with a herd to get to Ellsworth. Amazingly, Trey takes to the work, and by the time the herd makes Kansas Kerbow is impressed enough with him to hire him to serve as on-site caretaker for Kerbow's own ranch, somewhere out west of Fort Griffin on the edge of the "cap rock," or Panhandle. On his way there, he marries the girl. And after that... things get complicated.
Kelton fills his story with characters you'll hate, characters you'll root for, and at least one you won't be quite sure of. There's Kerbow, whose ranch holds a secret; Jarrett Longacre, who starts out on Kerbow's crew, ends up wanted, and yet has a powerful personal code of ethics that not only saves Trey and his young wife but may be his own saving as well; Gault, the preacher-turned-manhunter who's resolved to bring Jarrett in dead or alive; a pair of nameless hired guns who decide that robbing the man who hired them (and returning the money they've already taken from Trey) is better suited to their natures than doing the man's bidding; Katy Rice, prostitute turned cattle thief (it's a cleaner way to live, by and large, in her opinion); George Blackman, the McLeans' nearest neighbor, and his son Adam; and Mead Overstreet, who turns out not to be as nice a person as he'd like everyone to think. Along the way Trey gets his own back, makes friends, and learns a lot about human nature, about good and bad and how neither one is as absolute as he thought; about how important it is to follow your own idea of right and wrong if you hope to go on living with yourself; and about the mystery of Kerbow's wife's death. If you haven't read any of Kelton's Westerns, this would be a good one to start with. I'm definitely looking for a copy to add to my personal library.
November 27, 2018
I always enjoy an Elmer Kelton book, and this was no exception. An easy, interesting read that was such a relief after slogging my way through 150 pages of a book by another celebrated author before finally calling it quits and shelving it as DNF. When I was much younger, I would force myself to finish every book I started, but no more! Life is too short, and I'm too old to waste time on a book that is boring or irritating.
March 27, 2019
In the course of this coming of age novel largely set in the sparsely inhabited west Texas cattle country in the 1870s, Elmer Kelton manages to recount much of the culture and history of the time and place. As greenhorn farmboy Trey McLean sets out to become a cattleman with his four gravid cows, he is soon robbed of his stake by an unscrupulous local rancher. He signs on with a trail herd to Kansas, meets and later marries a young woman he meets on the way (her idea, not his), and is hired by the chief drover to mind and manage the drover's cattle holdings in West Texas. In the course of his development he encounters a variety of supporting characters. In addition to the trail boss who mentors him and his bride and the rancher who robs him, he encounters various cowboys and Indians, a lynch mob of vigilantes, a personable outlaw, an obsessed lawman seeking vengeance on the outlaw, robbers, rustlers of both genders, a rapist, and various other characters. It is these strong nuanced accessory characters, especially the lady rustler, that make the book since Travis is not only unskilled and and naive but also a bit of a dolt. Another enjoyable read by my favorite Western writer.
February 16, 2024
I imagine readers have had the feeling of a warm homecoming when returning to a favorite author after a spell. This is how it felt for me with this character driven story by Elmer Kelton. His writing is uplifting and easygoing. This story has interesting characters whose dialogue moves the story.
Kelton is noted for the his research into the place and period giving authenticity to his stories . In this one he gives the reader an authentic telling of a cattle drive from the perspective of a “pumpkin roller” the slang given to the novice or greenhorn, young men and women fresh from the farm trying to get a start on their own in a new environment. The story also depicts the struggle to build a life on the far edge of settlements, particularly the loneliness faced by women.
Kelton is noted for the his research into the place and period giving authenticity to his stories . In this one he gives the reader an authentic telling of a cattle drive from the perspective of a “pumpkin roller” the slang given to the novice or greenhorn, young men and women fresh from the farm trying to get a start on their own in a new environment. The story also depicts the struggle to build a life on the far edge of settlements, particularly the loneliness faced by women.
June 25, 2019
Solid western. Elmer Kelton, so of course the writing was really good as well as the character development. I guess it's just a bit too old school western for me. The good guys are good and the bad guys are bad. You see Trey mature quite a bit over the course of the book, but in the end it just felt meh to me.
July 9, 2022
Great action tied to memorable characters
West Texas was still wild country and very lonesome for a new bride whose husband had just been offered a share in a ranch if he would do the work, brand the newborns and mavericks, and keep the rif-raf from stealing the unbranded cattle. A magnificent tale by one of the best western writers and well worth the time.
West Texas was still wild country and very lonesome for a new bride whose husband had just been offered a share in a ranch if he would do the work, brand the newborns and mavericks, and keep the rif-raf from stealing the unbranded cattle. A magnificent tale by one of the best western writers and well worth the time.
July 17, 2023
I was taken in by the title The Pumpkin Rollers. I had never heard this phrase before applied to greenhorn farmers, wanting to become ranchers or cowboys. This was a delightful book, about a young man and his wife, becoming savvy in the ways of ranching and living in the world. I loved every minute of this book, and look forward to reading more by this author.
August 24, 2021
Because I've been reading a lot of Werid West style stories I was told to try a more traditional western to see if I'd like it. Not my bag, but a readable enough story. The main character is a likable enough fellow.
June 26, 2025
Great as always!
Elmer gets your interest and never lets it go! Pumpkin Rollers is a fun and captivating story! One wonders how can Sara make it alone, however in the back of your mind you have an idea of the help coming along!!
Elmer gets your interest and never lets it go! Pumpkin Rollers is a fun and captivating story! One wonders how can Sara make it alone, however in the back of your mind you have an idea of the help coming along!!
November 15, 2025
Elmer Kelton is probably one of the best western writers out there. It's fast, pulpy and yet the characters feel fully drawn. The story of a farm boy's journey from a green horn to a full fledged man of the west.
December 18, 2018
The Pumpkin Rollers is one of my all time favorite westerns and no one can express himself in words like Elmer Kelton.
May 7, 2020
Great read. I enjoyed this story and would highly recommend!
July 17, 2020
Okay. Great book. I just felt like some of the characters were underdeveloped. 3.5 stars really.
February 19, 2022
The first Elmer Kelton novel I read and it remains my favorite. Lots of great Kelton humor and Old West atmosphere in this one. Great characters.
January 9, 2023
Good audio book - narration, sound effects. Basic western novel about the good vs bad guys, farmers vs cattlemen and life in early “wild west.”
March 5, 2023
I never thought I would love reading westerns but Elmer Kelton us the best! Another wonderful story full of Texas history!
June 2, 2023
An honest look at a young "pumpkin roller" turned cattle man, complete with a winning mixture of adventure, romance, and the struggle to make one's way out West.
May 24, 2024
3 1/2
December 21, 2024
Great writing…
Mr. Kelton spins a good tale…it’s almost like being there…only better …when I am in my recliner in a warm home with a good woman.
Mr. Kelton spins a good tale…it’s almost like being there…only better …when I am in my recliner in a warm home with a good woman.
December 20, 2025
Excellent
This was the 2nd book by this Author I have read. I will be looking for another one soon
Great
This was the 2nd book by this Author I have read. I will be looking for another one soon
Great
September 28, 2011
Good story of a farmer moving west and becoming a rancher. Great coming-of-age study, complete with a main character who faces significant weaknesses due to his lack of age and experience, yet when he faces forks in the road, he manages sometimes through only dumb luck, to choose wisely.
I liked the book because the destiny of western heroes is so rarely in doubt. Most of the books read something like the Gladiator film: you know he will win at every turn, even if he dies heroically in the end. This book was more like the first Rocky movie: the guy is no hero, if anyone believes in him, it's only his washed-up trainer and his loyal lady, and he very well may never make it.
I liked the book because the destiny of western heroes is so rarely in doubt. Most of the books read something like the Gladiator film: you know he will win at every turn, even if he dies heroically in the end. This book was more like the first Rocky movie: the guy is no hero, if anyone believes in him, it's only his washed-up trainer and his loyal lady, and he very well may never make it.
April 5, 2015
The personalities in Western novels are usually very strong. However, here the main character, Trey, is probably the weakest character in the book. The rogue cowboy, the unyielding lawman, the gender-bending female cattle rustler, all are much strong characters. Not only that but Trey seems to just luck out more than he does prove himself: His love interest runs away to join him, he makes a name for him self by not getting killed in a stampede. The story was ok, but not what I expected from a Western.
June 11, 2011
This is another book I can "blame" my friend Chris for - when I was last at the library, I had forgotten my spreadsheet, but remembered his praise of westerns. I used a library guide to different styles of fiction to look up westerns, and found this as a result. Good story, well written, easy read. I liked it enough that I'm going to start reading some of the author's series (this particular book was a standalone novel)
December 29, 2015
Great read/listen. Once again, I highly enjoyed the audiobook version on Audible. George Guidall is such a talented narrator.
But back to the book itself. From character development to the plot, it was fantastic.
I've always been a L'Amour-lover, but I've got to admit the Elmer Kelton books I have read thus far grade a little bit better than the average L'Amour when it comes to depth.
I would highly recommend to those who love a good western!
But back to the book itself. From character development to the plot, it was fantastic.
I've always been a L'Amour-lover, but I've got to admit the Elmer Kelton books I have read thus far grade a little bit better than the average L'Amour when it comes to depth.
I would highly recommend to those who love a good western!
April 30, 2008
A "punkin roller" is a green farmboy and Trey McLean is just that. This novel tells the story of his coming-of-age on a cattle drive, his marriage, and his adventures as a newlywed cattleman. I loved the writing, the characters, and the plot, which has some fun dark and complicated twists. This would be a good read for someone who has never tried a western novel before.
June 2, 2012
Written in the style of Zane Grey, The Pumpkin Rollers is the story of a farm boy who comes west to Texas with ambition to be a rancher. He hires on with a trail herd and along the way meets a farm girl. Upon his return to Texas, gets married, andd is offered a job taking care of the trail boss's hill country spread. He has to deal with rustlers, the law, and a neighbor who wants his wife.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 43 reviews