Louis L'Amour's Autobiography is Inspiring
"Education of a Wandering Man" is a Must Read for Western Fans
May 25, 2009
Louis L’Amour’s autobiography, Education of a Wandering Man, (Bantam Books, 1990) is an extremely interesting read for those who are L’Amour fans and even for those who simply want to see a slice of life that was truly unique to the days of the Great Depression.
Life as a Vagabond
Louis L’Amour spends most of his time in the book recounting his days as a drifter doing odd jobs, hopping freights and working occasionally as a merchant marine. This is very surprising, as most people don’t expect a world famous author to be such a knockabout, high school drop out with no formal education, who thoroughly enjoyed boxing and was quite good at it. The fact that he was a high school dropout and left home at an early age to travel and make his way in the world is not only rare, but his experiences are what gave him the immense supply of characters and ideas for his stories.
Life in the Great Depression
L’Amour was a young man in the Great Depression time, so he was not alone in his vagabond, rail riding days as an itinerant worker. Fortunately, he lived in a time that, while financially extremely difficult, was not one of moral mayhem and meltdown. Surely there was crime in the 20s and 30s, but it was a time when the nation was gentler and far less dangerous than the nation today. Crimes against property were not uncommon, but personal safety was rarely a worry.
It was a time before sociopaths went on rampages with automatic weapons, beat homeless people to death and searched a pornographic laden internet. This is not to say that L’Amour didn’t struggle mightily, for he did, once going without food for four days and once barely managing to walk out of the Mojave Desert, but overall he was able to care and fend for himself from a young age.
L'Amour's Struggle to be a Writer
L’Amour was an extremely well read man and read widely throughout his entire life. He read anything and everything, absorbing fiction and nonfiction with great gusto. Always he had a book in hand and often spent what little money he had buying more books. He was also a veteran of World War II where he served on the European front.
Other writers of his time are also famous, like Hemingway, Steinbeck, Fitzgerald – but L’Amour’s fame seems so well earned. He didn’t inherit money that enabled him to travel about Europe as part of the “lost generation,” as so many writers in this time. L’Amour worked crops, planted citrus trees, cut logs, mined and did a host of other hard labor jobs.
It’s good to see someone rewarded with great success when their journey never had an easy route in it.
