People like John R. Erickson

John Richard Erickson (born October 20, 1943) is an American cowboy and author, best known for his Hank the Cowdog series of children's novels.

Born in Midland, Texas, he was reared in Perryton in the northern Texas Panhandle. He graduated in 1966 from the University of Texas at Austin and spent two years at Harvard Divinity School. He began publishing short stories in 1967, while still working as a cowboy and ranch manager in Texas and Oklahoma. Hank and Drover are both dogs he'd worked with at the ranch.

In 1982, after receiving numerous rejection slips from large publishers, Erickson borrowed $2,000 and began his own publishing company, Maverick Books. Hank the Cowdog debuted in The Cattleman, and two related short stories appeared in the first book published by Maverick Books, The Devil in Texas. Erickson began selling books out of his pickup truck wherever cowboys gathered.