This is Jarrett Kaufman for HPPR. The book in review is Elmer Kelton’s 1973 novel, The Time It Never Rained. The book won a Spur Award and the Western Heritage Award.
Born in 1926 in Five Wells Ranch, TX, Kelton worked as a farm and ranch editor for numerous newspapers until he retired in 1991.
The novel, inspired by the real-life Texas drought that lasted from 1950 to 1957, is a family saga that details the struggles of Charlie Flagg, an aging rancher, his strong-willed wife Mary, and his son Tom, a rising rodeo star, as they work Bushy Top, a 10,000-acre family ranch during one of the driest periods in 600 years.
As the drought scorches the land, Flagg and the other cattlemen of West Texas witness their livestock dying in extraordinary numbers. Desperate measures are then taken—allowing cattle to overgraze, initiating austere grain rationings, and even feeding their livestock burned cactus—but the efforts fall short, and many ranchers enroll in the Rural Electrification Program, a depression-era initiative aimed to provide electricity and running water to underdeveloped regions as well as offer loans and establish feed programs to help ranchers and farmers avoid foreclosure.
Flagg is a man whose principles are fashioned after American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson’s pinnacle virtue of Self-Reliance, where the greatness of man exists in his own ideas and instincts. Flagg’s suspicious of the government’s interventions and refuses to participate in any relief aid. Talking to a reporter covering the drought, Flagg says:
| The road to hell is paved and bridged with good intentions. I’d be a lot more satisfied with Uncle Sam if he didn't hire so many left-handed nephews to run everybody’s business. |
According to Texas Monthly, the drought thrusted the region into a fatal water shortage. The novel depicts how crops shriveled, reservoirs dried-up, and thirsty cattle died. During the last years of the drought, Flagg watches many ranchers sell all their land and others attempt to brave the weather but fail. Page Maudlin, fellow rancher and friend of Flagg can’t bear to lose his ranch and takes his own life.
Flagg, attempting to avoid repossession of his ranch, dismisses his loyal cowhands, Lupe and Rosa Flores and their children, a Mexican American family who’ve lived and worked Bushy Top for a generation.
But it is when Tom leaves to rodeo again that Flagg’s stubborn and self-righteous nature finally breaks. He acknowledges his body is weak. He worries his marriage is strained and he accepts that he’s nearly broke. Yet Flagg is still resolute. He sells sections of his land, and in a last-ditch effort, he sells his cattle to purchase goats, a more secure investment during the drought. He maintains:
| A man had to make his try, and when that didn't work, he had to try something else. Try and keep trying. Endure, and try again. |
The Texas State Library and Archives Commission reports a vicious storm ended the drought in April. Rain dropped for 32 days straight, killing scores and forcing thousands from their homes.
Flagg loses most of his goats in the storm. However, embracing Mary in the downpour, he realizes the way to salvation is through the heart. Emerson holds the authentic truth that shapes a man’s destiny can only be discovered within oneself. Flagg reflects:
| A man can always start again. A man always has to. |
As the storm rages, he and Mary walk in the heavy and cold rain towards home. He understands it is through his love of this sacred land and through his love for his precious family that he will have the strength to begin again and know that in this new beginning, hope—the burning heart of self-reliance—can once more be found.
The Time It Never Rained is a testament to Elmer Kelton’s intimate knowledge of the West Texas region, its people, and their culture. He died from pneumonia in 2009.
I’m Jarrett Kaufman for HPPR.
