First, your picture captures a very familiar L’Amour image. Had there been a Starbucks back in his glory days, it would have surely been called L’Amour. This guy put coffee everywhere in the Sackett series to the point where it became a running joke as I read each book.

For example in Treasure Mountain:

“A bullet nudged at the rock over my head spilling fragments into my coffee. I swore, ‘Now they shouldn’t ought to done that! A body can take just so much and set store by a good cup of coffee.’”

There were scenes like this one again and again, no matter the conditions, these folk loved their java. In this scene, he’s surrounded and being shot at, but they aren’t close enough to get too worried. So, he eats some bacon and has some coffee. Since I love coffee as well, that held a special place for me too.

My journey with L’Amour was through the Sackett series: seventeen novels and two short stories. I used this is excellent site (http://www.louislamour.com/sackett/index.htm) to track my progress. The site, which is run by L’Amour’s son Beau, has more than the Sackett Series and I look forward to poking around it some more.

As Aaron noted, L’Amour is not just a western writer. In fact, like our own Pete Peterson, he really didn’t like being labeled. He is tagged as a Western writer but that in no way describes these stores.

The Sackett Series begins in England. On the whole it is a story about a man migrating to the New World and then tracking his family line out west. L’Amour tracks the family for many, though not all, generations and there are several recurring characters. He peppers the stories with all sorts of interesting historical details/legends – like the mammoth in Jubal Sackett or in Lando how mules were used in horse racing.

There is a companion to the series in which L’Amour reveals his research (http://www.louislamour.com/nonfiction/sackettcomp.htm) and unlike Pete Peterson, this dude researched. If there is a book even remotely related to his story, L’Amour probably read it. The memoir gives an inside look at a man with a voracious appetite for books. To say he was a reader would be a massive understatement.

As to a clear delineation of good and evil, on the whole that is true, but that doesn’t mean that all the Sackets wore white hats. Nolan and Logan Sackett were Clinch Mountain Sacketts and as such were not always above reproach. A good biblical reckoning would be the story of Judah which pops up in the midst of the story of Joseph in Genesis 38.

They are basically decent chaps but they wouldn’t see anything wrong with nabbing a horse when they were in need of one. But, one thing is very clear in the whole series, if a Sackett was ever in trouble, every Sackett that could, would come to help – much to the chagrin of those who opposed them. This is used to great effect in many of the stories.

There was also sorrow and loss as well as characters who turned out bad after being good. The stories, in total are lot more complex than they first appear, easy reads, but touching on many levels of human desire and emotion.

I did use the library for most of my Sackett reading, but to balance things out, literally, for Pete’s sake, I purchased a copy of a book in the series. This book was missing from the Gwinnett County library system. After I finished it I donated it to my local library. In the process I found out the county didn’t normally accept donations but since this book was missing they took mine so some other poor reader wouldn’t be stuck.

I also purchased a couple of items from the L’Amour website:

• The Sacketts A made for TV movie based on two of the books (The Daybreakers and Sackett) starting Tom Selleck, Sam Elliott,. Glenn Ford, Jack Elam, and Slim Pickens to name a few. It was okay, and has Louis narrating at the beginning, but you would have to have been a fan of the books to get much out of it.

• An audio book (I listened to two in this series) of Treasure Mountain – read by one of my favorite actors David Strathairn (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000657/ ). It was his reading of the coffee line above that still cracks me up. The story is at some point in New Orleans but ventures out west to the mountain in the title.

I also picked up his memoir: Education of a Wandering Man at a local bookstore. This is a must for you writer types out there and any fan of biography. But alas Pete, I gave that to Russ. I’ll probably buy the Sackett Companion to get L’Amour’s research. This guy, on top of being a great fiction writer, is likely one of lesser known historians – especially as it relates to oral history. Ken Burns would have eaten this guy up as he had so many stories in his memoir about folks he met during his travels and his own recollections—including a sighting Butch Cassidy long after he supposedly died in South America.

Thanks so much Russ! I could call you the Tinker after one of the recurring characters in the series. You are a purveyor of many fine wares here in the Room.

Aaron, I saw The Hurt Locker on an in-flight movie last month based on Russ’ post here then I got a live one minute review from Father T-Mac at Hutchmoot. It is definitely worth a view but it is very intense. I also enjoyed Russ’ commentary on Annie Dillard at Hutchmoot. I just haven’t taken the dip into those waters but they are tempting – maybe summer of 2011?

Tinker…hmmm, probably would get misconstrued. I’ll keep thinking on it Russ.

As a sidenote, empirical evidence now exists that it takes me exactly 18 months to progress from being intrigued by something you have said to acting on that intrigue. I guess that means that sometime in February I’ll rent Hurt Locker.

It’s been a few years since I last read one of his books, but I have to say that facing the battles that life throws at us and standing strong in them has some of the same sweetness as stepping into the shoes of some weathered cowpoke and facing down the greedy cattle baron who’d rather run the small time ranchers out of the valley than reign in his insatiable appetite for more (reminds me of a certain shepherd in the Bible who thought his neighbors sheep looked tasty!).

Louis Lamours stories aren’t only about the west but about life in general. Despite their simplicity there is a depth there that reminds me of Jesus telling us, that the only way we’re going to get into heaven is with a certain “childlikeness”.

I think that at times we do cloud the simple truth. A child is very often much more eager to hear and accept Christ’s plan of salvation than an adult. A child can much more easily believe that God created the world from nothing and did it only in 6 days while we sometimes wonder if it was 6000 or even 6 million (which IS easier by the way?). This makes me wonder what life would be like if all of God’s people obeyed first and asked questions later. What if, like the good cowboy, we first and foremost did what was laid before us to do, no contingency plans, no searching for biblical loopholes, simply doing right because right is good and believing that good will prevail.

I guess Mr. Lamour knew a little about life, and thankfully for me, he spoke my language!

Kevin

Dave
dmmcgowan.blogspot.com

My dad is an avid L’Amour fan. He has read every one at least once, and probably two, or three, or more times. Obviously, I’ve also read a few.

What a great test. You guys will be very happy together and I must say your experience with L’Amour sounds a bit like an Elizabeth Bennett moment.

By the way, I love the father in Pride and Prejudice. The A&E production in particular brings to life the extremely dry whit of that character.

Russ,

I’m with you on the blog. That is really cool Chris. You guys are firing me up to read these books. Thanks!

I’ll admit that I can be a literature snob; as a bookstore employee, I generally view the one lowly shelf reserved for Westerns with a bit of disdain. I am also suspicious of prolific authors, certain they must sacrifice quality in the production of quantity.

Well, this article, assisted by a number of other recent influences, has finally put me in my place. After striking the deal and becoming acquainted with Jubal and his clan, and through him, the literary stylings of L’Amour, I was surprised to find references to L’Amour popping up everywhere, and particularly from sources I tend to respect for their reviews of art and craft. A scholarly friend I would have never taken for a reader of Westerns blogged about her deep appreciation for the author and her desire to return to a simpler time. And then this article in the Rabbit Room.

While I was reading the book, my fiancé checked in every once in a while to monitor my progress and gauge my reaction. I was surprised by how many significant conversations the story and characters sparked between us–discussions of men and their innate drive to provide and protect; musings on how we truly need so little to survive, and how our modern lives are so cluttered that we fail to be thankful for having what we need; affirmations of my fiancé’s desire to wander and explore (and hunt); laughter over the one chapter written from Itchakomi’s point of view and how Louis captured the language of feminine insecurities…

The results of our bargain? We jokingly refer to Jubal Sackett as our “relationship coach.” I feel more comfortable with the prospect of my fiancé’s collection of L’Amour paperbacks one day taking up residence on our shared bookshelves. I am curious enough about the rest of the Sackett saga that I might pick up another in the series some day, with enough confidence to read the book in public, and without issuing anyone who raises an eyebrow a disclaimer about my general tastes in literature. And my fiancé, for his part, has expressed a desire to read Pride & Prejudice. Everyone wins.