L'Amour Book Disappointment

[Winter Hawk]

I borrowed Louis L'Amour's "How the West Was Won" from the library.  I hadn't read it in probably 30 years and Grit magazine had an excerpt from it which whet my appetite to reread the whole book.  In the opening scene, first chapter, first few pages, mountain man Linus Rawlings comes upon a bunch of Indians attacking some trappers as he's leaving the mountains to take his furs back East.  He unlimbers his rifle, shoots one Indian, swings and shoots at another (misses), then shoots at a third.  All from horseback.  Now later on he gets married, has kids and one of the boys and he join the army to fight in the civil war.  This means that it's probably in the mid to late 1830s when we first meet him and he is shooting at the Utes.  The wording is such that it sounds like he has a repeating rifle, not a muzzle loader.  This was something I would not have expected from L'Amour; he prided himself on being accurate. 

Has anyone else read this and come to the same conclusion I did?  I remember finding a technical error on a firearm in another of his books but that was 30+ years ago and I don't recall what it was.

I can't reread it again because I returned the book to the library.

~Kees~

[greyhunter]

Sounds fishy to me,maybe he had a swivel barrel riffle? 

[Ohio Joe]

Well, lets see..... I would assume (without reading the book of course) if the Arthur does not clearly state a particular firearm, (or firearms if we are to assume he might be carrying two pistols and a rifle) then yes,,, it doesn't sound quite right to me either.

'Course, I never read the book, but I did watch the movie several times and unfortunately that part of the book is not, and isn't followed in the movie...

[Bigsmoke]

Well, I thought that might be an enjoyable read, so I checked out our local library.  Good news is that the video was available, as were the recordings of the TV series, but the book itself?  Not to be had.  Oh well.

I find it interesting that many authors have no clue about firearms, what they are, what they do and how they work and where they fit historically.  It really irks me sometimes.  If you call them on it, some will treat it well, and others will get upset.
John

[Ohio Joe]

Is the book/movie based on the, "How The West Was Won" (with Jimmy Stewart and an all-star cast),,, or is it based on the one with James Arness?

The Jimmy Stewart movie IMHO picks up in the 1840's Oregon Trail days, while the James Arness mini series picks up/starts out in the very late 1850's/early 1860's before the Civil War.

[AxelP]

I am sure the movies were inspired by the book because many of Louis L'Amour's books were made into movies over the years. He was known to be accurate with geography in his books having traveled extensively and had an enviable library of journals and firsthand accounts, but he was first and foremost a writer of historically inspired fiction & old west romance. His technical knowledge about firearms was debatable. He often added obscure and rare guns into his tales but did not get overly descriptive of them. He also freely interjected his own "new-age" philosophy into his characters that got more strange and mystical the older he got (he died in the 1980s). I have read every one of his books and have my favorites. He was a very interesting person. I particularly enjoy his early magazine short stories set in the 1920-40s in exotic locations including asia and the far Pacific. (In his youth he was a merchant marine among many other things).

I believe I learned to read by reading his books and on sleepy holidays at home I will still crack open one of my favorites and re-read them. His prose and descriptive language reads easy and flows into your mind and paints a vivid picture. He was rather old fashioned and did not add erotic details nor was he overly gruesome. I liked that about his writing. His tales were often moral, but centered on revenge and good men overcoming evil men. He was a true American and lived by a code that is mostly forgotten today. Heres to ya Louis! "Yol Bolsun!" (May there be a road)

He wrote books around rare multi-shot Italian flintlock pistols, early revolving flintlock pistols, The Ferguson Rifle, The Walsh Navy revolver, Joslyn Carbine and the turret rifle of the gold rush times, to name a few. And of course Sharps, Winchester Lever guns, Colt's and S&W revolvers. cool stuff man.

Ken 

[Bigsmoke]

Good comments on him, Ken.
I also tire rather rapidly about erotic novels, books that overdose on foul language, and books seemingly written in blood rather than ink.
I reckon all of the above have their time and place, I just rather it not be in my place on my time.
As I understand it, this stuff is written to appeal to the young crowd.  Sorry to say, it's been far more than a couple of ice cream seasons since I was called young.  So, there ya go.
Another writer that I enjoy along Louis Lamore's lines was Zane Grey.  I used to vacation in Scott Bar (my grandfather's home) in very northern California.  In the old homestead, there were three or four of his novels and I would always re-read them when I got there.  Another was Up Front by Bill Mauldin.  When I was through with those, it was off to the Post Office across the street to check out the books in the library, located in the PO.  Warm fuzzy memories of times past.

John

[AxelP]

I have read quite a bit of Zane Grey as well as Max Brand. Grey was similar to Louis L'Amour in a lot of ways, (he wrote a book about the Rev War era if I recall). But Max Brand was different--he was especially fanciful in his western depictions and did not even pretend to be historically accurate... I think he actually lived in Germany. Hey, he was fun to read though.

One of my favorite pulp fiction books is by Loren T Estleman Called "The Hider." Loved that book about an old Buffalo Hunter and a young man hunting one of the last wild buffalo. What a great book that is-- I always thought it would make for a fun movie. Sam Ellott as the old buff hunter, would be perfect. Another good read is by Lou Cameron called Cascade Ghost. Cameron wrote another called "The Spirit Horses" about the ill fated US Camel Corps in the 1830s. It too would have made for a good movie.

I have a pretty big library of dog eared paperbacks... I ate em up as a kid. Also read Sci-fi and Fantasy. It was common for me to read a book through in one day. I remember having eye strain so bad I could hardly see sometimes because I would read from morning til night on a saturday...

[AxelP]

Now you got me going Bigsmoke! A great read on the American Indian Wars of course is Terry C Johnston's Plainsmen Series. He also had a Mountain man series of books too which are good. Another favorite writer is Bernard Cornwell with his Napoleonic War Series about a fictional Richard Sharpe of the 95th Rifles. These are all very well researched and they often site non-fiction sources that are also great to read.

K

[Bigsmoke]

Terry Johnson was an interesting guy.  I greatly enjoyed his books on the Indian Wars.  I have been told that he would spend quite a bit of time in the area where he was writing about and then he would go home and construct somewhat of a diorama of the place so that as his characters moved from place to place, he could track it and make sure it was accurate.
Of course, there was the original series he wrote about mountain men and such.  I went on a tour with him once that was based on that series, went to several of the original rendezvous sites, etc.  It was probably a mistake as he got pretty pissed off with me for calling him out on several mistakes he made writing it.  The one I remember best is when I asked him if he had ever actually started a fire with flint and steel?  In one of his books he referenced getting the birds nest burning good then removing the charcloth.  Must have done that with his asbestos fingers?  His rather flimsy excuse was that the old mountain men had probably started 10 times the fires than I had, and they knew how to do it.
At least he didn't have the bushway's pistol a Glock 17.
He died a premature death, for sure.

The only book I read through in one day was the Exorcist.  That was one heck of a read.  I also put a pretty big dent in The Godfather in one day.  Finished it the next day, though.  Now, I don't even try to do that.  My attention span doesn't seem to be what it used to be.

John

[Ohio Joe]

AxelP, I've only read one book by; Max Brand, (This Old Bull), and I really enjoyed it. If memory serves (as I bet it was 30 years ago or more) it was about Buffalo Bill and Wild Bill Hickok.  It was hard to put that book down at the time.  Can't say as I recall reading any of his other books, and I have quite the collection of books to read in my retirement next year (at least that's always been my plan). 

[Winter Hawk]

Is the book/movie based on the, "How The West Was Won" (with Jimmy Stewart and an all-star cast),,, or is it based on the one with James Arness?

I don't know.  I'm not even sure which came first, the chicken.... no, no, that's the wrong book.   

I mean to say, I don't know if the book is based on the screenplay, or the movie on the book.  I've seen the Jimmy Stewart movie, long ago but I don't remember it following the L'Amour book at all.  It seems more like the book I was asking about where the protagonist was a lad, and he was the protege of a mountain man who was leading a wagon train to Oregon.  Had a swivel breach double barrel rifle IIRC with which he impressed a bunch of Indians when he could fire off more than one shot.  Maybe that's where L'Amour got the multiple shot sequence in "How the West Was Won"!

~Kees~

Okay, now I have a hold on several Terry C. Johnston books at the library, just to see if I read any of them or not.  Thanks for the heads-up!

[Uncle Russ]

AxelP, your description of Louis L'Amour's writing as........."His prose and descriptive language reads easy and flows into your mind and paints a vivid picture." is very accurate in my opinion.

I have also read all of his western books, and I really enjoyed them.
I recently sold a leather bound 23 volume library on the Sacketts just to make room for something else as they were only gathering dust.
If memory serves me right I paid either $125 or $150 for those books back around 1970, I sold them for $25 just a few months ago....later i was informed they worth 10x what I sold them for.

Of course I had a favorite, it was in plain ol' paper back, but I read it until it fell apart.
The story was about a pilot in Serbia or Russia, IIRC, but for the life of me I can't recall the name of that book.
Old age can sometimes be very unkind.   

Anyway, good posts' and very interesting topic.

Uncle Russ...

 

[AxelP]

"Last of the Breed" Yeah that was a good one! Took place in the USSR Siberia. He was a native american indian US pilot, escaping Soviet capture during he Cold War by following the historic route his ancient ancestors did.

I just read online that Lou Cameron was involved in writing the screenplay for the TV Show How the West was run. I am not sure it was connected to L'Amour at all.

[AxelP]

I have a lot of favorites from L'Amour. I usually like the more unusual story lines. Many of my favorites I have read over a dozen times. Lando, The Ferguson Rifle, Tucker, Sackett Brand, The Broken Gun, Fair Blows the Wind, Treasure Mountain, Jubal Sackett,  Silver Canyon, To Tame a Land, Sackett's Land, Walking Drum, The Comstock Lode, Californios...There are so many. His short story books are really great too. Yondering is one of my faves.