Louis
L'Amour is one of America's most prolific and bestselling authors, writing more than
One Hundred novels in a thirty year career. His novels of the old west have sold hundreds
of millions of copies, andmade him well known and appreciated around the world.
L'Amour wrote with a clean, flowing style that made his
work a fast reading journey into the world of the old
west, which he showed us in explicit
detail. His detail of historical settings resulted from years of research and firsthand
observation. He did not present the old west in the common, shoot-em up style that is
evident in so many pulp western novels, but instead examined the often brutal effect of
white culture on that of the natives, and created characters who endure conflicting
feelings about the Native Americans' struggle. His heroes were often recurring characters
from the Sackett,
Talon and Chantry families, who held strong loyalties to family, had
straightforward views on right and wrong, and believed in white
Americans' destiny to
spread their culture throughout the west. L'Amour's heroes consistently showed great
respect for the environment, and an ingrained desire to pursue what they believed to be
right and just, and to stand and fight for their values regardless of the odds against
them.
L'Amour's skill as a storyteller and chronicler of white
and Native American Western lore won him an amazing following of loyal fans. The high
moral standards, the ideals and respect for all that he wrote of in his stories, were a
great part of the attraction. The creation of the Sacketts and other families that appear
throughout his books, brought the reader into the heart of early family life in North
America, and the reader quickly became attached to these respectable characters, looking
forward to their next appearance.