Louis L’Amour: the Chronicler of Americanism
American Thinker,
by
Nicholas J. Kaster
Original Article
Posted By: Judy W.,
3/22/2021 5:10:47 AM
March 22 is the birthday of the iconic writer Louis L’Amour, a man whose name became synonymous with the American frontier and whose novels promoted old-fashioned patriotism and morality. America sorely misses his kind.
L’Amour was born in Jamestown, North Dakota, a farm town, in 1908. He was largely self-educated. As a youth, L’Amour spent many hours at the town library studying history and science and imbibing the fiction of Robert Louis Stevenson, Jack London, and Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Reply 1 - Posted by:
chumley 3/22/2021 5:17:44 AM (No. 731142)
I used to love his books as a kid. My brother and I would recite some of the more corny lines in our TV cowboy voices.
7 people like this.
Reply 2 - Posted by:
F15 Gork 3/22/2021 7:09:13 AM (No. 731176)
I’ve read every western he ever wrote and you need to do so as well if you have already done the same. He had a pretty simple formula - bad guys get the upper hand early on but in the end the hero comes out on top and gets the girl as well - gettin’ there is the fun of the read. That plus the fact the places and many of events he writes about are real - you can goggle earth them to see what things looked like. Since clown boy Biden got elected I’ve started re-reading his entire collection - reminds me of how things like truth, justice and the American way used to be and will never be again.
16 people like this.
Reply 3 - Posted by:
genius 3/22/2021 7:14:40 AM (No. 731177)
Last of the Breed was one of the best books I have ever read.
8 people like this.
Reply 4 - Posted by:
Timber Queen 3/22/2021 7:15:44 AM (No. 731179)
"...as Miller reminds us, his books reveal mature themes as well: 'the notion that there is less distance between civilization and barbarism than meets the eye. To keep them apart, men and women must strive to make homes, families, and communities… In short, those who would destroy are forever with us, and they can’t be wished away.'"
America's post-WWII prosperity lulled us into a complacency about our liberties and freedoms, certain they were a bulwark that would stand forever. While our original Constitution was preserved and protected in a sealed glass case, the Uniparty snake slithered into positions of power perverting every virtue and practicing every vice. The commies sponsored months of riots and anarchy in dozens of cities last spring/summer with the blessings of our bellicose betters. Our basic freedoms of speech, assembly, worship and travel have been stripped from us under the guise of a public health crisis. The only way out of this is to take on and unabashedly live the ideals of individualism, freedom and free agency gloriously recounted in Louis L'Amour's novels. That is our American legacy, our blueprint for our thoughts and actions. What would Joe Makatozi do?
13 people like this.
Reply 5 - Posted by:
Aubreyesque 3/22/2021 10:46:52 AM (No. 731425)
Long time Western fan here...love L’amour as well as Zane Grey. It’s time for me to mosey on through that region of books....
6 people like this.
Reply 6 - Posted by:
DVC 3/22/2021 11:09:50 AM (No. 731469)
Some of the best western movies every made were from L'Amour's books. I have not read a huge number of his books, perhaps 10 or so, so my sampling is small compared to his huge output. But, from my sampling, his characters were always well drawn....evil men were evil, and good men were good. They are good morality plays.
I'm sure the "woke" morons would hate them. And as usual, they could learn a lot from them.
3 people like this.
#5 reminds me of a visit to Zane Grey's cabin down the Mogollon Rim in AZ. He worked on a ranch somewhere around Star Valley. He figured nobody would understand Mogollon, so wrote 'Below the Tonto Rim' The cabin burned down a few years after my visit. Had I known at the time, I'd have stolen that chair with the armrest desk from which he wrote his tales.
4 people like this.
Reply 8 - Posted by:
Geoman 3/22/2021 1:21:07 PM (No. 731583)
In my early career as a field geologist, I made it a point to find many of the locations about which L'Amour wrote. Even as a student, I'd take several of his books with me to review during field courses. If he write about a spring, the water was there and it was cold. He was never vulgar and was always respectful of women. Instead of using bad language, he'd often substitute the phrase, "...he swore bitterly." The raciest comment he ever made is actually quite tame and humorous. "She was about three inches over five feet, I'd guess, and must have weighed what it needed to fill that space out proper, with maybe a mite extry here an' yonder."
His philosophies were as much a core of my law enforcement career as was the Constitution. "Strength never made right and was it was an indecency when it is allowed to breed corruption." And his timeless messages are valid today: "His kind would outlast my kind because people have a greater tolerance for evil than for violence."
2 people like this.
Reply 9 - Posted by:
Penney 3/22/2021 2:31:42 PM (No. 731634)
His books are national treasure of the hope and inspiration America has always represented for the world. He chronicles this particularly unique and special timeframes in such a captivating & entertaining way. American history is exciting, inspiring, romantic, etc., and we learn from BOTH the good and the bad. But, unfortunately, the lefty pols today choose only to emphasize & even fabricate the negative, ignoring the bad political choices made by former pols with all their human frailties. Better to examine the whole of American history and what is more interesting than the American West?! Love it!
2 people like this.
Reply 10 - Posted by:
TLCary 3/22/2021 4:16:58 PM (No. 731720)
FTA: George Will dismissed L’Amour as a “pale writer”
George Will is a "stale writer".
4 people like this.
Reply 11 - Posted by:
RuckusTom 3/22/2021 5:54:59 PM (No. 731848)
He brought things to light I'd never thought of - e.g. riding a running horse across a prairie. That's a big no, no. 1) Horses can't run at full speed forever (as seen in towards the end of the movie "True Grit" - with John Wayne) and 2) what if the horse steps in a gopher or prairie dog hole or any hole? There was a lot more walking around and leading horses back in the good ole days than what Western's portray.
3 people like this.
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