Louis L’Amour lived a life as adventurous as his novels. He wrote about things he knew, whether it was being a seaman on the Indian Ocean (West from Singapore), a soldier all over the world (Callaghen), or an Irish boxer who finds himself in the American West (The Man from Skibbereen).
The unique circumstances of Louis L’Amour created the opportunity for him to write from real experiences: his own or those of people he was friends with. He knew the people who knew the people that made the Legendary West.
This blog will introduce you to Louis L’Amour and review his 1968 frontier story, Down the Long Hills.
My Introduction to Louis L’Amour
I was introduced to Louis L’Amour by my sister, Renae. Despite our gap in ages, we shared a room, and she let me read her growing collection of his books. In fact, I think she started my current collection. His paperbacks were the perfect length and budget for a new teenager – at around 150 pages and about $5 new. Since I was always at thrift stores looking for my favorite books, it was easy to pick them up for a quarter back in the early 80s.
I don’t remember the first book, but I quickly grew to love and have an obsession with The Sacketts. All my future sons were going to have Sackett names; Tyrel, Orrin, Yance. I didn’t tell my husband that, but sure enough, he chose our youngest son’s name from one of the Sackett books. (I am currently trying to protect my kid’s privacy by not using their names in my blog.)
I’m guessing that Louis is pronounced Loo-ee, instead of Loo-is, because his father was of French Canadian ancestry. I’d never thought about it until I realized someone who has never heard of him before would probably read his name in their head with the English pronunciation.
I currently own 46 Louis L’Amour books, and I always have my eye open for more. In fact, I just got six from our local Little Free Library at the park. WooHoo!
Who Was Louis L’Amour
Birth and Early Years
Louis L’Amour was born Louis Dearborn LaMoore on March 22, 1908. His father, Dr. Louis Charles LaMoore, changed the French spelling, but in the 30s, Louis changed it back. His mother, Emily Dearborn LaMoore, of Irish descent, gave him his first introduction to learning since she studied as a schoolteacher. He was the youngest of seven children, though a set of twins died as infants and another sister was a casualty of the 1918 flu epidemic.
The first fifteen years of his life were spent in Jamestown, North Dakota where his father was a veterinarian, livestock inspector, farm machine broker, boss of a harvest crew, and politician. His maternal grandfather was a soldier in the civil and Indian wars and two uncles worked on ranches both as managers and itinerant cowboys. These men gave Louis a peak into the great stories of the American frontier.
Young Life
Because of bank failures and the general economic hardships of the Great Depression, the LaMoore family left North Dakota and traveled the United States. His formal education ended at 8th grade. But in Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, California, Nevada, Oregan, and Washington Louis L’Amour’s hunger for knowledge introduced him to skinning cattle, bailing hay, mining, and the logging industry.
His family was intelligent and well-educated. Through them, Louis’s education was formed: Emmy Lou taught him to read, Edna’s work as a librarian nurtured his love of books, Parker (the reporter) gave him the use of prose and speed in writing, Yale gave him a love and life and improvisation, and John was his example of quick whit and a sharp tongue.
Work and Travel of Louis L’Amour
Louis L’Amour traveled extensively. During his early years of travel, Louis became a professional boxer to make extra money and had 59 fights, only losing 5 of those. In his travels with family and alone he met many people who influenced his stories. They were mostly men who lived the life on the frontier and were well-known movers and shakers — or they personally knew them (like Billy the Kid, Emmett Dalton of the Dalton Gang, and Jim Roberts the last survivor the Tonto Basin War and later Marshall of Jerome).
In his life he worked the aforementioned odd jobs, as well as a mine assessor, merchant seaman, and boxing coach. As well as traveling extensively across the United States, he traveled to England, China, Japan, Borneo, the Dutch East Indies, Arabia, Egypt, and Panama.
He always wanted to be a writer, but without much training he struggled. His perseverance and intellect helped him grow in his craft. He started with poetry. Like Gene Stratton-Porter, he began in magazines. Poems didn’t pay well (or at all), so he drew upon his many experiences and the people he met to create short stories, sending these to various magazines. Throughout the 30s he wrote many genres and got the most attention from adventure tales.
Military and Post WWII
The summer of 1942, Louis L’Amour was inducted into the U.S. Army. He went to boot camp and then to Officer’s Candidate School, and Tank Destroyers School. By the time he was ready to join an outfit, he was too old (35) and so he joined the Transportation Corps. He became a 1st Lieutenant and supplied gas to planes and tanks throughout Europe. This supplied him with a background of places and characters for many stories.
After returning home from the war, he realized that the demand for Adventure stories had waned and the stories publishers wanted was Mysteries and Westerns. A publishing friend encouraged him to pursue Westerns, so he moved to Los Angeles and in living in the back of a family’s apartment, sat at his typewriter on a folding chair and chugged out a short story a week, selling them to magazines for less than $100 each.
By the early 1950s he was writing and selling his novels that were being made into movies. John Wayne starred in Hondo and claimed it was the best Western he had every read. His career flourished through the 60s, 70s, and 80s, winning numerous awards. Louis L’Amour has over 100 books, 250 (one source said 400) short stories, and has sold well over 300 million books. There are 18 movies that are either based on his books or that he wrote.
Family and Success
Louis L’Amour married Katherine Elizabeth Adams, an aspiring actress in 1956. Kathy and Louis traveled all over the west doing research for his books. Their son Beau was born in 1961 and their daughter Angelique followed in 1964. In 1966 they began to spend their summers in Durango, Colorado. He was able to move to better homes and build his library from 3,000 books to 10,000. (I have library envy!!) He spent an hour or two every day lifting weights, skipping rope, and punching a heavy bag.
Louis L’Amour’s Death
In spite of having never smoked, Louis L’Amour died of lung cancer in 1988. He came down with pneumonia in twice 1987. Tests showed inoperable cancer. He began writing his memoirs, Education of a Wandering Man, and was editing it the afternoon he passed away, June 10, 1988. He is buried at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Cemetary in Glendale, California.
Down the Long Hills
Down the Long Hills was published in 1968 by Bantam Books. It is 150 pages of easy reading. The reason I chose this book isn’t because it is one of my favorites — although I don’t if I could pick a favorite because there are so many great stories — but because several of my children chose this novel to do a book report for high school. They all loved it. It’s only a coincidence that it involves very young children, similar to my first DratherB Reading Book Club novel.
Overview
Seven-year-old Hardy Collins must cross the lonely plains to reach his father who is waiting for him at Fort Bridger. It wasn’t terribly challenging until his wagon train was massacred by Indian raiders. Now he must figure how to get himself, three-year-old Betty Sue, and his dad’s prized stallion Big Red to safety with only a knife and a gunny sack of canned food saved from the burned wagons. With the constant threat of Indians, outlaws, and wild animals, as well as winter approaching and food running out Hardy must remember every survival skill his dad taught him and think harder than he’s ever had to before — or they will never live to see California, their final destination.
Review
Overall, I loved this book. I’d give it four out of five stars. There were a few writing elements that bumped it down for me, but for 1968, it was probably normal. I’ll talk about that below under POV.
The plot and tension in the story was great. Hardy faced many people who wanted his big red horse and would kill to get it. He faced a grizzly bear and wolves. Each time he was saved but ironically put in more danger by that save. The ending flowed well and was believable.
Character Development
As an adult reading this book, the first thing I remember thinking was, “Really? A seven-year-old is doing these things?” But then Louis L’Amour does a good job showing how most of the adults involved in the story give up all hope of the children surviving because of Hardy’s age. Mr. L’Amour develops Hardy’s character as a very solemn boy who was at his father’s side from the moment he could walk. And children in that time period really did take on great responsibility at a young age. I’ve read it in my own family history journals.
I love the supporting characters L’Amour introduces. Knowing his history, you can see how he came up with them from people he met in his life. Bill Squires is a frontiersman who visits the wagon train and then finds it again after its demise. Although he is rough on the outside, he is steady in his devotion to helping Mr. Collins find his son. The Indian hot on Hardy’s tail is an interesting character who values the little warrior he is trailing. Technically Ashawakie is a bad guy, but I learned about some of the superstitions of the Native Americans through this character.
Research
It’s obvious that L’Amour does a lot of research for his books. They are really what we’d call historical fiction today. He talks about the conditions at the time period, of Fort Bridger, wagon trains and Indian movements at certain seasons of the year, of the Little People, and survival skills. There’s a lot to be learned from these books.
POV
Down the Long Hills is written in past tense, third person omniscient — meaning the narrator knows all the points of view and thoughts of each character. What I didn’t like was when he changed points of view without leaving some space between the paragraphs, so it became a little difficult to know immediately who was being represented.
I enjoyed this book. The character development is wonderful as well as the pacing and chapter transitions. If you’ve read it already, I hope you enjoyed it. If you have yet to read it, I highly recommend you do.
Louis L’Amour Reading and Watching Options
If you’re interested in owning this book, it is available through so many online options. You can purchase it on the Louis L’Amour website, Ebay, Amazon, and Thriftbooks. I do not receive compensation from any of these sites. You can read it online for free at Archive.org.
This book was made into a movie, which I wasn’t aware of before doing research. You can watch it on YouTube or on Archive.org.
I Connect with Louis L’Amour!
When I read that Louis L’Amour was the youngest of seven children and that his siblings all influenced who he was, I connected with that. I have always said that I like being one of the youngest because I get to look at those older than me and absorb what I love about them.
Like Louis’s family, we vacation in Durango, CO every summer. He says the mountains “. . . smooth out all the wrinkles and you’re at peace with the world.” I feel this way exactly. The mountains are my place of peace.
I see his quotes and say, “YES!” Like, “If you’re going to be a writer, the first essential is just to write. Do not wait for an idea. Start writing and the ideas will come. You have to turn the faucet on before the water starts to flow.” I love this because no matter how much I try to plan and organize what I want to write, it just doesn’t happen until I sit down and start to type or pick up the pencil (#2) and go at it.
His stories and musings have a real, down-to-earth sentiment that I connect with. He placed a lot of importance in reading, as do I. He emphasizes that in his stories. For example, in The Warrior’s Path (Book 3 of the Sackett series), he writes, “. . . we must read, not only for what we read, but for what it makes us think.”
Louis L’Amour had a thirst for knowledge. I think he was the embodiment of DratherB. He tried everything, and embraced dreaming, learning, growing and loving. I hope you’ll read his books and think about what he’s saying beyond the story.
Your Turn
Here’s how the Drather B Reading book club works. Read the book and leave your response to the discussion questions in the COMMENTS. If you have not yet read the book, don’t read the comments unless you want spoilers.
- Did you like the story of Down the Long Hills?
- Did you think the struggle Hardy and Betty Sue faced was realistic for the time period?
- If the book was written in first person, which character do you think would make the best point of view and why?
- At any point in the story, Hardy and Betty Sue could have died. What do you think was the pivotal point that determined their survival?
- Which character did you connect with the most?
- Did Louis L’Amour present any historical information in the book that you found interesting or new?
- How do you think Hardy changed from the beginning of the book to the end?
- Did you like Louis L’Amour’s writing style?
- If you made a playlist for this book, what songs would it include?
- What do you think the storyline would be like if this book were written in the current era?
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