On March 22, 1908, Louis Dearborn LaMoore was born in Jamestown,
North Dakota, the seventh and youngest child in the family. His
parents were Louis Charles and Emily Dearborn LaMoore, both of
whom schooled L'Amour in family and western lore, unknowingly
laying the foundation for his literary career. Louis Charles
LaMoore held various types of jobs, including police chief,
veterinarian, political leader and Sunday school teacher. Mrs.
LaMoore, herself a skilled storyteller, was trained as a teacher
before her marriage, and so the environment was a great one for
the children to learn and grow in intellectually.
In 1923, when L'Amour was fifteen, his parents moved to
Oklahoma. It was then that L'Amour decided to end his formal education to pursue
self-education by way of work and travel. He would hold a wide variety of jobs from this
point, much of it hard, physical labor. He worked as a longshoreman, lumberjack,
elephant
handler, hay shocker, miner, and cattle skinner, all richly adding to his knowledge and
well of experience which he would draw from later in his writing career. He also boxed
professionally in preliminary events, his father having taught him the sport.
His love of traveling took him up and down the west coast,
and soon he embarked on a sailing trip to the Orient. One well circulated story claims
that he used the proceeds from a sunken treasure he discovered in Macao to pay his way to
Paris and other European cities. L'Amour's writing was greatly influenced by these early
years of freedom and wandering. He of course gained great knowledge as a result, but as
well, his male hero's would often have conflicting feelings towards settling down.
In the late 1930's L'Amour returned to Oklahoma to pursue
the writing career which he had always intended to do. He published a book of poetry in
1939, but then his career was interrupted by World War II. In 1942 he entered the army,
serving as an officer in tank destroying and transportation units in France and Germany.
Upon the end of the war he resumed his writing pursuits, and published
 stories
in pulp magazines of all types, from detective and adventure magazines to sports.
Initially he did not plan to focus on westerns, but he began to write mainly in that genre
as he sold more work to Western magazines than the others. In 1953 he published his first
novel, Hondo, and thereafter L'Amour consistently produced three novels a year until his
death in 1988. He gained steady popularity throughout his career, to the point where
hundreds of millions of copies of his books were sold.
Although L'Amour is best know for his westerns, he did step out of that field
occasionally, writing books such as 'The Walking Drum', (1984) which is set in medieval
Europe, and 'The Haunted Mesa'. Never did he lose his passion for travel and researching
his books firsthand. He would search out people who knew the area he was interested in the
best, and delve into their knowledge of it.
L'Amour was the only novelist in America to accord the
Congressional Gold Medal, and the Presidential Medal of Freedom, both of which were
awarded to him by President Ronald Regan.
L'Amour (a non-smoker) died in Los Angeles, California, on
June 10, 1988 of lung cancer.
Top
|
