27 Facts About Louis L'Amour

Louis Dearborn L'Amour was an American novelist and short story writer.

Louis L'Amour's books consisted primarily of Western novels ; however, he wrote historical fiction, science fiction, non-fiction, as well as poetry and short-story collections.

Louis L'Amour's books remain popular and most have gone through multiple printings.

Louis L'Amour's mother had Irish ancestry, while his father was of French-Canadian descent.

Louis L'Amour's father had arrived in Dakota Territory in 1882.

Louis L'Amour visited all of the western states plus England, Japan, China, Borneo, the Dutch East Indies, Arabia, Egypt, and Panama, finally moving with his parents to Choctaw, Oklahoma in the early 1930s.

Louis L'Amour had success with poetry, articles on boxing and writing and editing sections of the WPA Guide Book to Oklahoma, but the dozens of short stories he was churning out met with little acceptance.

Finally, Louis L'Amour placed a story, Death Westbound, in "10 Story Book", a magazine that featured what was supposed to be quality writing alongside scantily attired, or completely naked young women.

Several years later, Louis L'Amour placed his first story for pay, Anything for a Pal, published in True Gang Life.

Louis L'Amour wrote only one story in the western genre prior to World War II, 1940's The Town No Guns Could Tame.

Louis L'Amour continued as an itinerant worker, traveling the world as a merchant seaman until the start of World War II.

The suggestion of Louis L'Amour writing Hopalong Cassidy novels was made by Margulies who planned on launching Hopalong Cassidy's Western Magazine at a time when the William Boyd films and new television series were becoming popular with a new generation.

Only two issues of the Hopalong Cassidy Western Magazine were published, and the novels as written by Louis L'Amour were extensively edited to meet Doubleday's thoughts of how the character should be portrayed in print.

Louis L'Amour retained the right to novelize the screenplay and did so, even though the screenplay differed substantially from the original story.

Louis L'Amour had sold over a dozen novels and several million copies before Bantam Books editor-in-chief Saul David was finally able to convince his company to offer Louis L'Amour a short term exclusive contract that would accept three books a year.

Louis L'Amour's career flourished throughout the 1960s and he began work on a series of novels about the fictional Sackett family.

Louis L'Amour branched out into historical fiction with The Walking Drum, set in the 11th century, a contemporary thriller, Last of the Breed, and science fiction with The Haunted Mesa.

Louis L'Amour eventually wrote 100 novels, over 250 short stories, and sold more than 320 million copies of his work.

Louis L'Amour appears under the name of "Lew" as a minor character in the 2006 novel The Chinatown Death Cloud Peril by Paul Malmont.

Many of the Louis L'Amour titles have been produced in the "single voice" style.

Louis L'Amour Theater played on over two hundred stations for a number of years.

Several of the scripts from the Louis L'Amour series have been produced as live theater pieces, including The One for the Mojave Kid and Merrano of the Dry Country.

Louis L'Amour is a recipient of North Dakota's Roughrider Award and the MPTF Golden Boot Award.

Louis L'Amour's autobiography detailing his years as an itinerant worker in the west, Education of a Wandering Man, was published posthumously in 1989.

Louis L'Amour was survived by his wife Kathy, their son Beau, and their daughter Angelique.

Louis L'Amour often wrote series of novels and short stories featuring previously introduced characters, the most notable being the Sackett clan.

Louis L'Amour was commissioned to write four Hopalong Cassidy books in the spring and summer of 1950 by Doubleday's Double D Western imprint.