While visiting San Angelo, the town Fort Concho built, Martina and I stopped at the Cactus Book Shop on East Concho Avenue. The store specializes in Texana and the West, and its proprietor, Felton Cochran, was a close friend of Texas author Elmer Kelton, who passed away in 2009. Mr. Cochran proudly offers "the largest selection of titles by Elmer Kelton found anywhere." As a testimonial to the late author's talent, a glowing letter from Robert Duvall, who played Augustus McCrae in the Lonesome Dove television series, is nailed to a wooden beam near the Elmer Kelton section. When Duvall visited the bookstore, he apparently purchased a stack of Kelton's works, and he is clearly a fan.
My dear wife, although a fan of Texana and the West, was very indulgent. I am always drawn to people who know more than me, and Mr. Cochran is a vast repository of Texas knowledge. I asked him about the work of the illustrator Tom Lea and books by some of Texas' more well-known fiction writers, and he told me the real history of San Angelo's famed bordello. After about two hours in the bookstore, for my wife's sake I figured that it was probably time to go.
Before we left, I purchased, among other books, a copy of Elmer Kelton's
The Time It Never Rained. Here is a short clip of the late author reading the prologue. Notice his fine West Texas drawl.
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