Louis L'Amour's Legacy
My favorite author of secular fiction was (and is--he's still my favorite) the late, great Louis L'Amour. L'Amour wrote primarily of the old west it is said, but really, he wrote about people. Indomitable people. People who didn't know when they were licked. People who would fight for right and what they believed in no matter what. People who had and lived by a strict code of conduct and honor straight out of Sir Walter Scott. Most of his characters just happened to live in the old west--a device used because he knew the west and appreciated the stark backgrounds it would afford--but could have lived anywhere.

Because something is popular does not mean it is validated, but when something is popular it behooves us to ask why. Sometimes we don't like the answer, but sometimes we do. Why is this former adventurer with the odd name (his early works were written under the name "Tex Mayo" because some publisher told him nobody would buy a western from a guy named Louis L'Amour!) still such a best seller? And not to make too much of what might be a minor point, L'Amour is read by Everyday Joes. Look at the book racks at the Wal-Mart and the convenience stores and try find another author with as many titles available. What makes the reading public return again and again to this same well?

L'Amour was, by his own admission, a story-teller first. He wrote to be read out loud, to be told around a campfire. He wrote stories that--with all their conflict--brought the reader to the other side of the story with a sense of triumph. That good guys would win, but not necessarily without cost. The innocent would be defended, even if sometimes is was posthumously. The evil would be punished, sometimes by his fellow man and sometimes by the desert, the mountains or some other element (the hand of providence?).

What does this have to do with this blog and it's parent web site? One of the books reviewed (at http://bestfiction.tripod.com) is by Samuel White, who readily admits to being a L'Amour fan. While his only published novel to date is set in the present (mostly) one can see L'Amour's influence in his work. Not just in the fact that he uses a quote from L'Amour in the introduction, but in the general tenor of his writing style. The cadence, the descriptive narratives, even the general tone of the "man against all odds" plot are evocative of L'Amour.

L'Amour claimed his inspiration from many sources, but some of the primary ones--at least judging by his repeated admiration for them--were Shakespeare and Scott. How many authors out there now owe the same amount of credit to L'Amour for the inspiration he has given them?