The Old West

Thanks, Roy, great link! Have you read any of Louis L'Amour's books? If you like the Old West, he is MUST reading. He wrote around, I think, 110 books and I've read over 100 of them. Fiction section, Western section of any good bookstore.

 

Roy,

I'm not that good a reader. Pick up one of Louis L'amour's books and you'll see how easy it is to read a hundred of them.

They are substantial books, but so very fascinating that I'd bet you'll go through a few hundred pages in a few days.

They highlight all the stuff that you mention, and he was extremely knowledgeable, down to the finest details.

 

Good to see some other western fans. Louis L'Amour is great - I cut my western teeth on him. I'd have to say though that my favorite of all times is Elmer Kelton. Read some of his and see if you don't agree.

 

I wouldn't have thought there was a whole lot "wet" out west (going by movies & travelogs). As Dr. Bob said, I'm thinking that disease (like influenza, tetanus and pneumonia) - agravated by malnutrition (lack of green leafy veggies and fruit), poor sanitation, and parasites - took the greatest toll.

Weren't barbers the surgeons back then? When was soap and water considered essential to health?

 

I'll have to find them, I'd love to read more. And, if he's as good as you say, there will at least be someting that we agree on!

Thanks for the tip!!

 

Hmm, I'd always thought of plains & prairies as being "real" west, with the Rockies dividing mid-west from far-west. Of course, to us living right on the East Coast, any place west of the Mississippi (and a few places east) seems west, lols.

There was a movie, "Dead Man", whose opening scenes were of a young man traveling west on a train from Ohio to Wyoming, perhaps in the 1890's. In the first scene, he looks "western" as do the people around him and the land outside the window. Each time he falls asleep and reawakes, the people around him (and the land outside) look a bit wilder until the men are wearing rough bison-skins; at that point, he really looks like a dude.

 

I have the entire Louis L'Amour collection with the exception of his very first book of poetry entitled Smoke From This Altar. I have read every book of his and several of the many times.

I collect the paperback editions of his books. I am collecting all of his book with a special interest in earlier books published by companies other than Bantam Books. (Fawcett, Ace, etc.)

I would also recommend some of L'Amour's nonfiction works, especially Education Of A Wandering Man.

I would love to find some of his earlier works before he began writing under his real name. His earlier works (mainly magazine short stories) were done under the pen name "Jim Mayo."

His writings are historically accurate. His characters are fictional, but if he says they crossed this river or stopped by that lake, you can be sure they are really there. A great example is his novel Sitka which deals with Seward's Folly and the purchase of Alaska.