The Day the Cowboys Quit

by Elmer Kelton

From one of the West's greatest living storytellers, winner of numerous awards, including the Golden Spur, the Saddleman, and the Western Heritage Award, here is Elmer Kelton's rousing novel of the Canadian River cowboy strike of 1883.

This was cowboy country a land of hardworking hands who rode for the brand come hell or high water. Now a different breed is moving in--big outfits backed by Eastern syndicates and run by power-hungry "managers," men who figure to make a profit, even if it means crowding a cowboy too far...

Hugh Hitchcock tried to keep the peace between rancher and cowboy, but when push came to shove the wagon boss knew where his loyalties lay. And when the ranchers stole his cattle, when they lynched his friend and hired a back shooter to put him in his grave, he kept on fighting...because even is they took everything he had, they couldn't touch his pride--or his willingness to fight to the bloody end.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical, Literature, Classics

248 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1971

About the author

Elmer 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...

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'd like to say this book was all cowboy, it sure felt that way as I was listening to it. It's all about the big ranchers versus the little ranchers, and the old-style way of ranching moving over for the new ways. But there is so much more to it about human character, from good to bad. I loved one critical point of the story where the "hero", after being robbed and almost killed by the "big guys" has an opportunity to get back. After taking the first dishonest step, he stops. He thinks about his conscience and his own character. And then he makes that dishonest step honest and doesn't go further down the dishonest path, all with no one looking over his shoulder.
It was an excellent story!

As a side note.
My mom is a lover of Louis L'Amour and has tried over and over to get me to read his books. I've started a few and can never quite get into them. Not so with this book, and I think whenever I'm in the mood for a western (I spent a good 15 years of my life as a horse lover),I'll turn to Elmer Kelton. Sorry, mom.

[Alyx · Rating 4 out of 5]

Elmer Kelton. Enough said?
Another great one from Kelton. In my humble opinion, I feel like most of his reads make you think. Weigh your options of what you would have done in this situation, what side you would have been on, which character you would have been most like and so on. I found myself feeling uncomfortable throughout the novel, not because of the writing, but because the story and characters were painted so vividly, I felt as if I were in the scene having to choose.

I will always recommend Kelton books. They are enjoyable, intelligent and thorough.

[Stephen · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's the rare western book that invites a Marxian analysis, but Elmer Kelton, who died recently, was the rare western writer.

"The Day the Cowboys Quit," takes place at the intersection of rugged American individualism and the collective efforts of the undercapitalized to improve their lot.

The book renders a cowboys' strike - a fascinating concept - that actually happened, on ranches in the Canadian River region of west Texas circa 1883.

By Kelton's lights, the strike occurred in the crucible of corporate encroachment upon the cattle industry that brought an end to the free range. Rationalization and greater efficiency in the beef business left the liberty loving cowboys with a beef of their own and they struck in response to it.

This novel is a beautifully paced, tightly constructed page-turner that manages to treat deeper afflictions in the American condition for those who want to see them, without boring those who just want a good western yarn.

Here's an exchange between the central protagonist, Hugh "Hitch" Hitchcock and the Kansas City corporate rancher Prosper Selkirk, who notes that:

"If I invest my entire fortune in a bad venture and lose it, nobody guarantees to take care of me the rest of my life. When a man gets on one of those bad horses he knows the risks: he implies his willingness to accept that risk when he agrees to the job."

[Hitch:] "He accepts the job because he's partial to eatin'.'
"The same reason I take a risk and invest capital."
"There a difference between a man's limbs and his money."

A political writer might take pages to explain this naturally occurring friction so skillfully dispatched in a few terse exchanges by Kelton.

What do the "big ranchers" want? New rules forbidding the use of a company horse for personal affairs or keeping one's own mount without management's consent; the expulsion of "tramps and idlers" from the cowboy camp’s traditional protective care; and the outlawing of a ranch hand’s, "owning cattle in their own brand less than two fences away from the ranch where they worked, which in the Panhandle's open range country effectively canceled out their right to own cattle anywhere."

Each of these, if you're not familiar with late 19th-Century western ranch life (and who is?), comes with a back story Kelton fills in easy as an Arkansas maiden in an Dodge City cathouse.

"The Day the Cowboys Quit," treats the labor action with surprising sensitivity for a manuscript packaged as pulp fiction. Kelton had a deep comprehension of the strike psychology, of the ambiguity that plagues supporters and opponents alike.

He paints those too sure of themselves in a less flattering light than those with doubts. The pioneering, don't tread on me individuals opposing the strike are slaves to the American winner-take-all mentality and obsequious to those with more money simply because they have more money. They lack a dissident and skeptical spirit.

The strikers are scattershot in their efforts; too closely identified, and easily taken advantage of, by the cattle thieves and drifters littering the fast-closing frontier.

The author aptly develops the unspoken reasons behind labor actions that actually prop up the prosaic demands for higher wages and better working conditions.

And speaking of prosaic, Elmer Kelton has a fine ear for plain-spoken dialogue between down home folk while investing his narrator with an-all-too-familiar, but no less colorful klatch of colloquialisms that move his story along like bulls through a brier patch.

“The Day the Cowboys Quit,” alternately delivers on resolutions that leave a reader satisfied, without tying every loose end so that the story finishes in an uneven fashion that comes mighty close to looking like life beyond books.

[HornFan2 · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elmer Kelton's a legend in the Western genre, with 'The Day the Cowboys Quit' he takes the reader on a trail drive (If you will), one were his words either flow fast, then they slow down and just like the cattle on a trail drive.

One of my favorite parts of the Western genre are the books about Cowboys. That's why I loved Elmer Kelton books, could he every bring Cowboys too life, make them so real, didn't matter if they worked for big or little ranches or struggling to build their own spreads.

With 'The Day the Cowboys Quit' it's 1883, he mixes actual historic events that happened in West Texas. The big ranchers wanted to achieve with a list of rules, the heart of the matter was that they couldn't own cattle they would need to surrender them to these ranchers, even the smaller spreads were bullied and end result some Cowboys opposed to the rules went on strike.

I believe Kelton, wanted the reader to be Hugh Hitchcock, he puts you right their in the pages, as your reading your right their to take witness to what goes on, pick a side or just enjoy this Cowboy yarn.

Definitely a must read for any Western fan, even if your not a Western fan, give Elmer Kelton a try and you'll learn why he's so beloved by his readers.

[Jackson Burnett · Rating 4 out of 5]

"The Day the Cowboys Quit" tells the story of a group of Texas cattle hands going on strike against the big ranchers in the late 1800's. It's based on a real event. Kelton is a subtle storyteller and this is one Western where you really aren't sure what is going to happen. The book would have gotten five stars, but it slowed too much in the middle. It's a good book for those who enjoy Westerns but are tired of the guy in the white hat just fighting the guys in the black hats.

[Jeff Tankersley · Rating 2 out of 5]

A 1971 Spur winning western from Elmer Kelton, "The Day the Cowboys Quit" applies his standard over-the-top emoting and feelings to a "we are the world, stand together as one" kind of western labor conflict with the two opposing sides simply taking things too far. It is the late 1880's and some of the big-shot bankers and ranchers who want to strengthen their hold on the Texas Panhandle are throwing their weight around with rules and pay caps for the ranch hands and cowboys who work for them. The cowboys, being treated as a lower class of human now, are considering a wide-ranging (pun intended) strike against all of the outfits. As the stubborn money-hungry misers collude to impose their rules, they are also hunting down those no-account rabble-rousers who are pushing the strike talk.

Our protagonist, Hugh Hitchcock, is a decent, hardworking character and the lead foreman for one of the ranch outfits. In this spot, then, he is basically caught up on both sides of the conflict and finally sides with the union folks when his boss tells him he can't keep his own cattle as part of the new rules being imposed. Bad actors on both sides push the larger groups into escalating encounters and counter-strikes that leave no one able to step back without losing face.

Verdict: In some parts a pretty good western, "The Day the Cowboys Quit" is more engrossing when it shows how events, relationships, and emotion can get the best of even the most noble common man. In the end it is wrecked by its lengthy monologuing, prejudicial statements, and soul-searching. Especially bad is the final-third when we have a, no lie, honest-to-goodness courtroom drama that is just wince-inducingly tropey with pages and pages of monologuing that repeats everything we already just read from all the various perspectives. I absolutely HATE tropey legal courtroom "drama" like this.

Jeff's Rating: 2 / 5 (Okay)
movie rating if made into a movie: PG

[Ron · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kelton's novel has some of the ingredients of pulp western fiction - big ranchers against the little guys, justice at the end of a rope, an honorable hero wearing a sheriff's badge - but he brings a great deal of insight, experience, and historical background to the task of telling this story. It is enjoyable and full of well-drawn characters and unexpected turns of plot from beginning (a squabble over the brand on a cow) to the end (a gripping courtroom drama).

The title suggests that the book might be a more light-hearted story that focuses on the cowboy strike of 1883, but Kelton's aim is to explore the more complex psychology of the men who live by the Code of the West. The ill-fated strike is over before we are well into the book, and the author focuses on the unexpected and far-reaching results of its aftermath. Like many books about the West, this one is about loss and the passing of an era. The cowboy way of the open rangeland is quickly disappearing as settlers move in and towns spring up, the cattle business falls under the influence of venture capital from the East, and rough justice must give way to law and order.

Most enjoyable for this reader is the characterization of its main character, Hitch, a single cowboy in his thirties for whom circumstance, loyalty, and honor lead him out of a job he loves and into harm's way, until he reluctantly assumes a role of no small responsibility and risk in the new social order on the Texas plains. Not the fearless hero of standard cowboy fiction, Hitch has a good many conflicting feelings,he's more diplomatic than quick with a gun, and his actions require considerable courage.

Kelton's rural Texas background and knowledge of frontier history clearly come through in the many details that enrich the tale he tells. He notes a horse's dislike for flapping laundry on a clothesline. The cowboys drink more strong coffee than whiskey. He realistically describes a man's slow, painful recovery from being pistol-whipped. A man angrily observes the terror of a cowboy who wet his britches as he was being hanged for thievery. And there is much about managing cattle on the open range and the complicated, neverending process of ensuring their ownership.

I highly recommend this book to anyone with an interest in the historical West, cowboys, roundups and branding, frontier social history, the landscape of the plains, frontier justice, the Code of the West, and the struggle for political power and shifting alliances in changing times. Kelton's book is well-written, with memorable characters, and a fair share of suspense.

[John · Rating 5 out of 5]

A recent issue issue of American Cowboy said Elmer Kenton is the true king of western writers so I gave him a try. Wonderful! Sweeping plots. Authentic sounding. Archetype characters. Pleasing end. I'm going back for more.

[John Wodatch · Rating 4 out of 5]

ain't no western like this western

[Dick Varga · Rating 4 out of 5]

Based on a true event: the strike of working cowboys against rules by ranchers prohibiting cowboys from owning cattle to keep them poor and dependant on their jobs for income. Cowboys who owned cattle would homestead free range that ranchers used for a few pennies/acre. Some cowboys did steal cattle from ranchers as some ranchers had when building up their herds but this rule was implemented by large commercial ranch corporations owned by banks, absentee investors who were determined to limit or eliminate competition for land/water rights and control of labour by independent small rancher/cowboys. A different view of the classic cowboy as portrayed by Will James, Zane Gray, more like Jack London as cowboy. A romanticized view of a hard life of labour and poverty that was never well supported by unions or labour legislation to this day. I recommend The Time it Never Rained by E. Kelton also for a view of the hardships facing small working ranchers and cowboys about two generations later. Plan to reread soon. My dad cowboyed in south Alberta during the Depression to early fifties trying to save enough $ to rent/buy land of his own. A tough life but one that he loved.

[Vaughn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Audio version- I have been a fan of Loius L'Amour westerns since high school. But somehow Elmer Kelton slipped my attention. This novel had a very memorable main character who experiences significant personal challenges and redeems himself through making good choices. The economic and societal themes are apparent and it is interesting how the author uses a western setting to explore these. This is only the second novel by this author which I have read, it surely won't be my last.

[Wilson Lanue · Rating 3 out of 5]

Based on the true story of the Panhandle cowboy strike of 1883.

It is primarily a psychological study of the forces involved: The blue-collar code of loyalty versus the requirement for personal freedom. As such, it is slightly repetitive, perhaps a bit dry at times as well. But very good, and an excellent depiction of the Texas mindset at one point in time.

[Dee Mills · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've read many of Kelton's books, particularly the series about the Texas Rangers. I like the way he tells a simple story and gets to the heart of it. I feel like I've learned a lot about cow punching in this book, and about integrity and loyalty. It's a good yarn, well-written and a fast read.

[Linda Bittle · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of Kelton's best, and the basis for the John Wayne movie, "The Cowboys".

[Vic Allen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Kelton is telling (at least) two stories in "The Day the Cowboys Quit." The primary story is about the individual people in his story. The character development in "The Day" is excellent. The good guys have their shortcomings and the bad guys are shown as three dimensional and human that demands respect if not liking. The dialog is also very good. It reads true to the way people actually talk. The protagonist, Hitch, comes across as an actual human being and not an undefinable superman. In potentially violent confrontations his knees shake and his hands sweat. Just like anyone's would.

There is surprisingly little gun play in "The Day." Kelton does an excellent job portraying life in that time and place. Most cowboys did not wear side arms, most did have any. A side arm was of limited use on the open range plus they were heavy and bulky. To be any good with a pistol took time and money. Time to practice and money to spend on ammo. The average cowboy didn't have the time to spend hours practicing nor the money to buy a good enough pistol to make the practice worth it.

The other story Kelton tells is of the end of the West. The heyday of the big cattle drives lasted barely 20 years and the entire "Old West" of cowboys and settlers lasted less than 40 years (end of the Civil War to the turn of the 20th Century) Kelton explains the changing world thru his characters. He doesn't pull this off as well as his personal interactions. Characters launch into exposition showing far more intelligence, wisdom, and knowledge than they show otherwise. This makes some characters a little cardboardy at those points. But Kelton wants his readers to understand the larger context of the events in the story.

All in all a very good book, a bit different than most westerns.

[Tim Deforest · Rating 5 out of 5]

An enthralling book about the tension between large ranchowners and working cowboys, which parallels in many ways the tensions that existed as the Wild West was tamed and old ways of doing things fell away.

The protagonist, Hugh "Hitch" Hitchcock is a man of torn loyalties who takes pride in being an honest man. He is more or less roped into taking part in a disorganized strike against the ranchowners, then takes a reluctant leading role in trying to bring a standard of law and justice to the area. He is one of the most likeable, admirable and thoroughly human characters I've run across in a long time.

The book depends very little on action or violence to tell its story, but brings us deeply into the story through the strike, Hitch's struggle to make a living as a small rancher while the big guys are out to get him, and later as he campaigns to get elected sheriff. The climax does not bring a clean or drama-filled ending, but a messy and very realistic one, with Hitch and his allies able to count small victories won in their fight to make their part of Texas a better place to live.

[Bonnie · Rating 5 out of 5]

It took me a long while to get through this book because I could hardly believe what I was reading. It is so sad to believe that the problems we undergo have been going on since the beginning of the United States. We haven't learned a thing. History has just kept repeating itself. I could take the characters from this book and match them with people today. We did not learn to put an end to greed and power and try to help one another. We were not fair to the Native Indians. Supposedly, our ancestors fled what they felt was abuse and then turned around and abused the people that were already here. Money grubbing ranchers stole, lied, murdered, and cheated their way to gaining wealth. Bankers moved in and were also in it for the money and rarely to help people. It hasn't stopped. They have confused Americans so much today that no one is paying attention to what the problem is. Even if we all got together and tried to correct today's problems, we would probably end up losing like some of the characters in the book. The wealthy have made the American dream theirs only. We are only pawns to be used in their game.

[Harron68 · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is deceptive, the cowboy "strike"is the prelude to what follows. Characters in this 1880s North Texas drama are well drawn. The plot is okay, it builds, there are surprises and the lead, "Hitch" Hitchcock, is especially good. He embodies the then changing Southwest. He grew up knowing old rough justice and cattle-accumulation by deception. By the '80s justice mattered, but the rich and powerful wanted it done their way. Therein lies the conflict.
I love the Old West slang, the way sentences were put together with words, like twisted tree branches used in fences, not perfect but to the point. I was unsatisfied with the ending, but not every tale can end with a neat justice-is-done summary. Maybe I'm spoiled from reading so many Louis L'Amour stories, where things are rounded up to satisfaction for all. Three stars.

[Chapter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is my book site that I keep for my own benefit.
FROM GOODREADS SITE: The time is 1883,the place is the Texas Panhandle. Cowboys refuse to be stigmatized as drinkers and exploited by the wealthy cattle owners who don't pay liveable wages. Those very same ranchers want to take away the cowboys' right to own cattle because this ownership, the ranchers believe, would lead to thieving. So, in 1883, the dictum is set: If you're a cowboy, you can't own a cow. When rumors of such legislation travel from wagon to wagon, the cowboys decided to rally and fight for their rights--they gather together and strike.

[Patrick O-S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Up there with The Time It Never Rained. I've read three Kelton books now, and I was a bit worried when I started the second that they would be too samey to really enjoy individually. However, while there are certainly similar tropes and themes that run through his work, each book has been distinct enough to stand alone from the others.

The...Cowboys Quit goes in a direction I never thought it would, and it touches on some moral themes in a way that leads you but never beats you round the head. The narrative is pacey, many of the characters are great, and the ending left me partly, but not entirely, satisfied, which I actually think is to its credit. Highly recommended.

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎ · Rating 5 out of 5]

Imagine reading something that sentence by sentence makes you keep thinking 'oh. gosh, that is so cliché' but then, all at once, you realize that this is the real deal, and that this author is writing from a place of such cowboy-sincerity, and with so much cattle-wise knowingness, that every so-called cliché pinging into your brain from the page is as true, within the space of this story, as a tincup full of coffee you're drinking, out there in the mesquite, while staring at the open fire--and if you can imagine these things about a book then you know what it's like to read this book.

[Nate]

Elmer Kelton’s characters are not black-and-white, good and bad types often found in westerns. They are complex and real. So it goes in this book, another fine read by an author who is gradually becoming a favorite. His books are oddly comforting to me. Not that they’re nice and happy all the time - because they definitely are not - but because they are good, solid American books about interesting people. And sometimes those just hit the spot.

[Joyce B. Lohse · Rating 5 out of 5]

Master western storyteller, Elmer Kelton, artfully describes cowboy life in 1883 Texas when a small skirmish over a roan cow escalates in a full blown strike by the cowboys. A great story, and well researched information about life on the prairie for cowboys in the American West, their struggles, and their dieing culture.

[Jason McCracken · Rating 1 out of 5]

“Elmer Kelton is truly a Texas legend and a good friend.” —Texas Governor, Rick Perry

DNF. 18%. Kelton writes republican wet dreams, everything is black and white, the hero’s are “real men” and if it was possible to make it through the shitty writing and hilariously bad dialogue I’d probably find out that ‘murikkka wins the day.

[Bob Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Historical fiction about the great cowboy strike. I had known nothing about it before this book. I do like me a western! This was my first audiobook and I really liked the narrator. Kelton is a great find. I look forward to reading more of his Westerns. Check out from Hennepin county library was easy. I will be listening to more books this way!

[Thomas Halloran · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was “just tickled” by this silly study of cardboard characters. Each actor is a mechanical wind-up toy set in motion and the outcome is predictable from the first couple of pages. There is little imagination, development, or drama here. It is, at least unintentionally, at times funny. It’s also useful as an example of a stale genre that greater writers (Cormac McCarthy) would respond to later.

[Christian Bourriague · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing

I had to read this book for my history class and I'm glad I did. This book has been one of the best I've read in a long time. It kept me entertained and captured the entire time I was reading it a really great find.

[Julie Sparks · Rating 5 out of 5]

Elmer Kelton is unequivocally the best writer of Texas westerns. When you’re in one of his books you’re out there with the cowboys. This story has it all. Love, hate, the life of a cowboy and legal challenges. Fantastic read!

[Markkorth · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another unique story from Elmer K. It started slow and had a great finish. Maybe I just got used to the authors style, but the further I went the more I enjoyed this book. It’s based on real history and was a fresh story for the genre.

[Terry McIntire · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't usually like this genre, read this for a book club. A very good book, engaging memorable characters and an interesting story. I will read more by Kelton and recommend all try at least one of his books.