No-Gun Man of Texas

Hamner, Laura V.
The No-Gun Man Of Texas, A Century of Achievement 1835-1929.
Amarillo: Privately published by Laura Hamner, 1935. 1st edition. 256 pages.
Hardcover book without dustjacket. Book is in very good condition, much better than is normally found. $100

For over thirty years Laura Hamner wrote features for the Amarillo Globe-News. She knew Charles Goodnight and his wife, Mary Ann. According to the Handbook Of Texas, this book is a “novelized biography” of Goodnight. The book is divided into four parts. Part I, “Twenty Years of Pioneering in Central Texas”. This part includes his boyhood. Part II, “Twenty Years of Purposeful Wandering”. This includes his days in the Fort Belknap area, his ranching start on Keechi Creek in Palo Pinto County, and his relationship with Oliver Loving. Part III, “Building a Ranch in the Wilderness”. Chapter headings in this section include “Quanah Parker and the Leopard Coat Man”, “Life Goes on in Palo Duro, and “The Cowboy Strike and the Vigilantes” (the Cowboy strike was the basis for Elmer Kelton’s The Day The Cowboys Quit—copies available if interested), and Part IV “By Reason of Strength: A New Home: A New Life”. This part concludes with “Goodnight’s Last Roundup”.