Panhandle Cowboy | 
 enlarge | Authors: John R. Erickson, Bill Ellzey
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Category: Book
List Price: $24.95
Buy New: $12.75
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Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 1468607
Media: Hardcover
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 207
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.2
Dimensions (in): 9.4 x 6.4 x 0.9
ISBN: 1574410644
Dewey Decimal Number: 976.61405092
EAN: 9781574410648
ASIN: 1574410644
Publication Date: July 1981
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Condition: University of North Texas Press first edition 1999, first published by the University of Nebraska Press in 1980, hardcover book, 207 pages. The book and dust jacket are in pristine new condition. The binding is tight and all of the pages are clean and clrisp. No remainder marks. Great gift quality!
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Product Description
Panhandle Cowboy is the classic description of cowboy life by master storyteller John Erickson. His observations about the Crown Ranch in particular, and the cowboy lifestyle in general, are filled with humor and pathos as Erickson describes the ranch, individual cowboys, roundups, wild cattle, and horses. Panhandle Cowboy is a treasured addition to the literature, life and lore of the American cowboy. The Midwest Book Review, March 14, 1999. James A. Cox, Editor. "Panhandle Cowboy is a sensitive, admirable straight-forward book about the texture of modern cowboying in the Oklahoma Panhandle. These truthful and affectionate descriptions of life and work in that severe locale serve to reinforce an old point: that hardship and risk are woven deeply into the appeal of cowboying. Often as not the elements themselves provide all the hardship that anyone could well want. Should the weather happen to be comfortable, animals or the cattle market will contribute the hardship. In this one regard cowboys resemble desert Arabs; their best qualities are forged by extreme conditions. Enrich or suburbanize a Bedouin or a cowboy and taste, vigor, and sense of craft are soon lost. Keep them out where the winds blow, the sands storm, and the animals resist all reasonable effort and they remain superb workmen, alert, humorous, and subtle." --Larry McMurtry
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| Customer Reviews:
Home on the range February 6, 2006
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
Anyone who still thinks the cowboy life is one of great romance - man and animal working in harmony under a blissful sky in wide open country, free and independent, the epitome of Jeffersonian democracy at work - had better read this honest, eyes-wide-open account of ranch life today. Although cowboyng was never really like the myths made it out to be, for some reason the myths took firm root. John Erickson worked for four years in the 1970s on a ranch in the Oklahoma panhandle, and this is his warts-and-all account of his experiences. Unlike in the myths, herding cattle is hard, sometimes brutal work, made even worse by harsh weather conditions, unpredictable animals, unending routine (read tedious) tasks, and cut-throat business practices (this last might be the cruelest of all). Not to say there aren't good times - close friends, favorite horses, handsome views when the wind lays down and time permits noticing - but Erickson makes clear that these good times are only oases in a Sahara of hardships. Not that he's complaining about that - just making an observation. But even Erickson can't resist the mythologizing and romancing completely, and where the book apparently ends at a livestock auction where he sells his favorite horse to (he assumes) a meat-packing plant, the horse is miraculously saved at the last minute and sent to a ranch in Montana: "I can see him now," Erickson writes, "standing in a green meadow with the Montana mountains blue in the distance." Myths, thank God, do not die easy deaths. A well-written, informative, and honest account of punching cattle on the open range.
Wild cows and dubious horses . . . May 19, 2005
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
This is a solid 5-star book for any reader interested in the day-to-day, season-by-season work of cowboying and running a ranch. The author describes in this well-written book his four years (1974-78) of single-handedly managing a cow-calf operation on 5000 acres of sandy grassland in the Oklahoma Panhandle. The writing is precise and informative, full of love for the life he has chosen, admiration for the hard-working men who are his friends and neighbors, and a deepening understanding of the ranch's four not-always-cooperative horses.
There's also a good deal of humor in the book, much of it owing to the particularly unmanageable nature of the cattle on the ranch. An episode of fruitlessly chasing two wild cows through a series of pasture fences made it into a collection of cowboy humor called "Horsing Around," by Lawrence Clayton and Kenneth Davis. We also read how the author gets a reputation for picking the worst weather for fall roundups. The book ends on a soberer note, as Erickson is told that the ranch is being sold and that he's out of a job. While he's happy enough to clear the ranch of the hateful cattle that have tried his patience, there's a bittersweetness as he parts with the horses that we've come to know so well.
This is the first, and maybe best, of a series of books by the author about his ranching experiences. It was followed by "Cowboy Country" and "LZ Cowboy." As in the others, the text of this book is illustrated with a number of nicely selected black and white photographs. Larry McMurtry has some interesting words to say about cowboys by way of introduction (he's usually not so appreciative). Thanks to the University of Nebraska Press for keeping this fine book in print. Readers will also enjoy Ben K. Green's "Wild Cow Tales" and Thomas McGuane's "Some Horses."
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