The Far Canyon, the sequel to Slaughter was published in 1994 and won Elmer Kelton his sixth esteemed Spur Award from the Western Writers of America. By 2002 Kelton had not only earned his seventh Spur Award with Way of the Coyote, but had also won three Western Heritage Awards. The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum honored Kelton for The Time it Never Rained in 1974, The Good Old Boys in 1979, and The Man Who Rode Midnight in 1988. With such accomplishments, it is easy to understand why, in 1995, the Western Writers of America voted Elmer Kelton the greatest western writer of all time.In The Far Canyon, Kelton masterfully unveils for his reader the finality of the buffalo’s demise, the beginning of a time when cattle would replace the American bison on the southern plains and ultimately end the Plains Indian culture.
