Elmer Kelton was voted All-Time Greatest Western Author by Western Writers of America, Inc. He has received seven Spur Awards for fiction from WWA, including one for Slaughter, four Western Heritage (Wrangler) Awards from the National Cowboy Hall of Fame and Western Heritage Museum, and lifetime achievement awards from WWA, the western American Literature Association, and the Texas Institute of Letters. A former agricultural journalist, he is the author of about fifty novels. He and his wife, Ann, live in San Angelo.