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.