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2026 Texas Great Read
Adult Selection

Small Town Author by John R. Erickson

Cover of Small Town Author showing a photograph of the author John R. Erickson in a long sleeve blue shirt sitting in a river holding a dog in his arms while the dog sits on his lap


Small Town Author
More than 50 years ago, John R. Erickson took a vow of discipline. Every day, he would retreat to some quiet place and write for four hours. For nearly as many years, readers have eagerly awaited the fruits of those labors, whether they be in the form of Hank the Cowdog installments or other books on ranching and the writing life in Texas.

Small Town Author documents the journey of a young man eager to escape his Panhandle childhood to the adult who returned to write books for the rural readers he had previously scorned. While a story about literature and writers, Small Town Author also considers universal questions of how we come of age, how leaving home changes us, and how returning can make us whole.

Texas Tech University Press, 2025
 

About the Author

Photograph of John Erickson wearing a cowboy hat and hands crossed on a stack of books

John R. Erickson, a former cowboy and ranch manager, is gifted with a storyteller's knack for spinning a yarn. Through the eyes of Hank the Cowdog, a smelly, smart-aleck Head of Ranch Security, Erickson gives readers a glimpse of daily life on a ranch in the West Texas Panhandle. This series of books and tapes is in school libraries across the country and is popular with readers around the world. 
 

 

 

 



Page last modified: May 18, 2026