Description: "A memoir spanning more than fifty years by the West Texas author best known for the Hank the Cowdog series"--
Brief description: 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.
Review Quotes: "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)