L’Amour, Louis, << luh MOOR, LOO ee >> (1908-1988), was a popular American author known for his exciting novels about Western frontier life in America. L’Amour’s stories have been praised for their historical accuracy and detailed descriptions of Western wildlife and geography. He is also known for his sensitive portrayals of American Indians and Mexicans. A number of L’Amour’s novels place a high value on family ties. Many of these stories feature three fictional pioneer families named Sackett, Talon, and Chantry.
Louis Dearborn L’Amour (originally spelled LaMoore) was born on March 22, 1908, in Jamestown, North Dakota. He left home as a teen-ager and wandered for many years throughout the West, working at a variety of jobs. Encouraged by friends, he began to write down stories he had heard from his grandfather about Indian fighting and the Civil War. L’Amour’s first novel, Westward the Tide (1950), was followed by the popular Hondo in 1953. His other novels include The Daybreakers (1960), which introduced the Sackett family; Bendigo Shafter (1979); The Lonesome Gods (1983); and The Haunted Mesa (1987). L’Amour died on June 10, 1988. The autobiographical Education of a Wandering Man was published in 1989, after his death. Seven volumes of his short fiction were published from 2004 to 2009 as The Collected Short Stories of Louis L’Amour.
