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June 10th marks the anniversary of the death of one of America’s most beloved storytellers. And if you’ve ever found yourself totally lost in a frontier tale with dust on your boots and a six-shooter in your hand (figuratively speaking, we hope), you already know why we’re here. Louis L’Amour was the king of the Western novel, and he left behind a legacy so deeply woven into American literature that a single blog post could barely scratch the surface… yet we are going to give it a shot!
L’Amour was born Louis Dearborn LaMoore on March 22, 1908, in Jamestown, North Dakota. He left school at fifteen and spent his early years doing pretty much everything a restless young man could get into… he worked as a longshoreman, a lumberjack, a cattle skinner, an elephant handler, and even a professional boxer with an impressive 51 wins to his name (the man really couldn’t sit still, clearly). He served in the U.S. Army during World War II and traveled all over the world, soaking up experiences that he would later pour straight onto his pages.
That being said, getting published wasn’t an overnight accomplishment for L’Amour. He spent actual years grinding away at pulp magazines in the 1940s before landing his first novel, “Westward the Tide” (1950). The real turning point came with “Hondo” (1953), which got turned into a John Wayne film the same year (which was not a half bad debut). He never really slowed down after that, putting out fan favorites like “The Sackett Brand” (1965) and “Bendigo Shafter” (1979), and eventually over 100 books total, selling more than 330 million copies worldwide. He embraced a role as a storyteller for everyday readers with genuine enthusiasm… famously saying he wrote for the people who didn’t typically read. A statement which is perhaps the most generous artistic mission a writer could have!
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L’Amour’s footprints could be found all over the Western literary genre, and plenty of authors (like Elmer Kelton and Ralph Cotton) have pointed to his lean storytelling style and morally grounded characters as a major influence on their own works. His work truly helped shape how we think about the American frontier in fiction and film, and he was recognized for it in a big way with both the Congressional Gold Medal (in 1983) and the Presidential Medal of Freedom (in 1984). He passed away in Los Angeles on June 10th, 1988 after a battle with lung cancer, at 80 years old. He left behind more stories than many writers can dream up in two lifetimes… and honestly? We’re still not done reading them!
