Most Popular Books by Fred Gipson

A twelve-year-old boy goes on his first hunt with Blackie, the hound-dog man, and is granted his fondest wish

When a novel like Huckleberry Finn, or The Yearling, comes along it defies customary adjectives because of the intensity of the respouse it evokes in the reader. Such a book, we submit, is Old Yeller; to read this eloIquently simple story of a boy and his dog in the Texas hill country is an unforgettable and deeply moving experience. The big, ugly, yellow dog showed up out of nowhere one night and stole a whole side of hanging pork, and when Travis went for him the next morning that dog started yelling like a baby before he was touched. Then he got into the spring water with five-year-old Arliss, Travis took an easy hate to Old Yeller, as they started to call him; in fact, he would have driven him off or killed him if it hadn''t been for brother Arliss'' loud and violent protests, So Yeller stayed, and Travis soon found he couldn''t have got along without him. Pa and Ma and Travis and Arliss lived on Birdsong Creek in the Texas hill country. It wasn''t an easy life, but they had a snug cabin that Pa had built himself, and they had their own hogs and their own cattle, and they grew most of what else they needed. The only thing they and the rest of the settlers lacked that year in the late 1860''s was cash, so the men decided to get together and drive all the cattle up to the new market in Abilene, Kansas, more than six hundred miles away. Travis was only fourteen, but he was proud of his new role as man of the family and determined to live up to his responsibility. It was hard work, too, plowing until his legs ached, chopping wood until his hands were raw and his head was spinning, weeding the garden in the hot sun, toting the heavy buckets tip from the spring, and trying to keep his mischievous little brother in line. But there were pleasant moments, too: his Ma treating him like a man, and deer hunting in the early-morning stillness, and hot summer nights out in the corn patch under the stars with Old Yeller, trying to keep the coons and skunks out of the winter food supply. And there was plenty of excitement, like the fight between the two bulls, and the time Arliss nearly got mauled by the bear, and trying to catch and mark the new hogs. Here the suspense and excitement reach a peak, only to be topped a few pages later when the crazy-sick loafer wolf goes for Ma. Both times it is Yeller who saves them, only the second time it is not lucky for Yeller, as Travis comes to find out. And in finding out, Travis learns just how much he has come to love that big ugly dog, and he learns something about the pain of life, too. Old Yeller is a story that will be read and treasured by many thousands for years to come. In a shorter form, this has appeared as a three-part serial in Collier''s.

An anthology of previously unpublished folklore by a master Texas story teller.

"Gipson again has given us a purely wonderful trunk of Americana, and one of those rare books to be enjoyed on many latitudes of brow elevation."--Chicago Sunday Tribune

A first-hand account of a chronically ill man who uproots his family to settle on the banks of the Rio Grande, written with the author of Old Yeller. To the wild and fabulous country where the Rio Grande makes its big bend, J. O. Langford came in 1909 with his wife and daughter in search of health and a home. High on a bluff overlooking the spot where Tornillo Creek pours its waters into the turbulent Rio Grande, the Langfords built their home, a rude structure of adobe blocks in a land reputed to be inhabited only by bandits and rattlesnakes. Big Bend is the story of the Langfords’ life in the rugged and spectacularly beautiful country which they came to call their own. Langford’s account is told with the help of Fred Gipson, author of Old Yeller and Hound Dog Man. “Big Bend. . . is the story of a way of life, beautiful in its simplicity, a story that can be read again and again for it is a book of substance.” —New York Herald Tribune “Not a big book this, but as warming to the senses and to the heart as a mesquite fire on the open hearth. It is, also, a book that reflects a commonality of the Western experience of this Nation—a homesteader’s story.” —San Francisco Chronicle “This is one of those rare books of actual experience with the smooth continuity of the best fiction.” —Houston Chronicle

Three classic dog tales brought together in a single volume Old Yeller Winner of the Newbery Honor When his father sets out on a cattle drive for the summer, fourteen-year-old Travis is left to take care of his mother, younger brother, and the family farm. In the wilderness of early frontier Texas, Travis faces his new and often dangerous responsibilities, with many adventures along the way, all with the help of the big yellow dog who comes to be his best friend. Sounder Winner of the John Newbery Medal Sounder is a loyal family dog, determined to help his owners through thick and thin. This is the story of a great coon dog and the poor sharecroppers who own him, and of the courage and love that bind a black family together in the face of extreme prejudice from the outside world. Savage Sam In this sequel to Old Yeller, Travis and his younger brother are kidnapped by an Indian raiding party, and Savage Sam, the son of the beloved yellow dog, leads a frantic chase to bring them back.

A stray dog is befriended by a family of poor farmers in 1869 Texas.

The story in word and pictures of the battle against hoof and mouth disease in cattle in 1946-47.

A young boy repeatedly puts himself in danger in his determination to kill the wild boar that has destroyed his prize watermelon.

To the wild and fabulous country where the Rio Grande makes its big bend, J.O. Langford came in 1909 with his wife and daughter in search of health and a home. High on a bluff overlooking the spot where Tornillo Creek pours its waters into the turbulent Rio Grande, the Langfords built their home, a rude structure of adobe blocks in a land reputed to be inhabited only by bandits and rattlesnakes. Big Bend is the story of the Langfords'' life in the rugged and spectacularly beautiful country which they came to call their own. Langford''s account is told with the help of Fred Gibson, author of Old Yeller and Hound Dog Man.

True story of a West Texas cowhand. A working cowboy who could break a horse, rope a cow, doctor a sheep, fix a windmill, dig a post hole for fence, or any of a thousand chores on a ranch. Fat Alford later hauled livestock, feed, and equipment to West Texas ranches.

Hopper Creech tells the stories of a year in the lives of the people of Recollection Creek, not too far from San Antonio.

A small twelve-year old boy''s determination to prove he is tough sets him on the trail of a runaway horse.

A tale of a rooster that escapes being a fried dinner and becomes a mascot of cowboys on the trail. Grades 3-6.