![\"Libraries](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2017\/09\/Libraries-1.jpg\")
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Welcome back to our series on the libraries of great men<\/a>. The eminent men of history were often voracious readers and their own philosophy represents a distillation of all the great works they fed into their minds. This series seeks to trace the stream of their thinking back to the source. For, as David Leach, a now retired business executive put it: \u201cDon\u2019t follow your mentors; follow your mentors\u2019 mentors.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n When digging in to the best novels and authors in the Western genre of literature, there are a few names that pop up over and over again. Larry McMurtry, Cormac McCarthy, Zane Grey, and of course, Louis L\u2019Amour. Over the course of his prolific career, L\u2019Amour published over 100 books \u2014 most of them novels, but also over a dozen short story collections, and one brilliant autobiography, <\/span>Education of a Wandering Man<\/span><\/i><\/a>, which is more of a journal of his prodigious reading rather than a life telling (note: all quotes in this piece are from that book). Amazingly, not a single novel of his was published until 1951 when he was in his early 40s, though he had been writing poems and stories his whole adult life. <\/span><\/p>\n Though he\u2019ll rarely be praised for writing beautiful or lyrical prose, L\u2019Amour is one of the top 25 bestselling authors of all time, and when you ask grandpas \u2014 yes, as a whole category \u2014 about their favorite authors, he seems to almost universally top their lists. L\u2019Amour writes with a realistic quality that isn\u2019t easily matched in the genre, balancing both the romance and realities of Western life. His action scenes are superb, but more striking are his lifelike depictions of the landscape, the horses and horsemanship, the movements and habits of American Indians. Few have ever researched and truly lived the West like L\u2019Amour.<\/span><\/p>\n As a reader, L\u2019Amour\u2019s only match may have been Theodore Roosevelt himself. The Western writer had a library of over 10,000 books, and averaged reading 100-120 books per year \u2014 \u201creading approximately thirty books a year on the West in its many aspects\u201d both for pleasure and in order to stay on top of his writing game. <\/span><\/p>\n And it wasn\u2019t just books either \u2014 he regularly read magazines, newspapers, and even small town pamphlets and brochures. He noted that it was in those smaller collections of the printed word where one got into the nitty gritty of understanding things and that \u201cThey are often valuable additions to the larger pages of history.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n He was also an avid collector of <\/span>Little Blue Books<\/span><\/a> \u2014 small, pocket-sized informational booklets \u2014 noting \u201cI carried ten or fifteen of them in my pockets, reading when I could,\u201d and that he had \u201cread several hundred\u201d of them. <\/span><\/p>\n Louis L\u2019Amour\u2019s life story is in fact primarily a love affair with books. He had this to say about his motivation to be a successful writer:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cTo me success has meant just two things: a good life for my family, and the money to buy books and continue the education of this wandering man.\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Before we take a look at the specific books that influenced L\u2019Amour, let\u2019s take a brief look at his story, and how he came to be such an avid reader. <\/span><\/p>\n Louis was born in 1908 in Jamestown, North Dakota, the 7th and final child born to Louis and Emily LaMoore (it was later that the younger Louis changed the spelling of his last name to L\u2019Amour \u2014 its original rendering \u2014 to honor the legacy of his French ancestors). <\/span><\/p>\n As a child, his family had a modest collection of books, but it was at the library that his love of reading really came to life. His oldest sister, Edna, was a librarian, and Louis spent long hours in the stacks exploring subjects that his schooling only tangentially covered. <\/span><\/p>\n At home, that learning was cemented with further reading and discussion: <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cOurs was a family in which everybody was constantly reading, and where literature, politics, history, and the events of the prize ring were discussed at breakfast, lunch, and dinner.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n In fact, he said that \u201creading was as natural to us as breathing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Because of economic difficulties, the family moved to Oklahoma in 1923, and Louis dropped out of high school to become an itinerant worker; though he doesn\u2019t give many personal details, it\u2019s likely he struck out on his own because he didn\u2019t wish to be a financial burden at home. From logging in the Pacific Northwest, to cattle skinning in Texas, the young man traveled all across the country (and the world), taking any job that would put a meal in his belly, and fund his reading. <\/span><\/p>\n L\u2019Amour was in fact tramping around the Far East on freighters \u2014 Singapore specifically \u2014 when his old high school classmates graduated. At that time he specifically remembers reading <\/span>Departmental Ditties<\/span><\/i>, a poetry collection by AoM favorite, Rudyard Kipling. <\/span><\/p>\n Until WWII, L\u2019Amour\u2019s life was a series of manual labor jobs. He was an abandoned mine caretaker (guarding against thieves and vagabonds), ditch digger, cargo officer on ships, logging inspector, amateur boxer, and more. Through it all, the bachelor noted, \u201cI was never without a book, carrying one with me wherever I went and reading at every opportunity.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Even then L\u2019Amour knew he wanted to make his true living as a writer \u2014 preferably as a poet. So when he wasn\u2019t reading or working, he was writing. When his poems didn\u2019t catch commercially, he tried his hand at short stories, in a variety of genres \u2014 Far East adventures, boxing tales, Westerns. He wrote about nearly everything. Finally in the late 1930s, his stories started being accepted by the pulp magazines that were popular at the time. <\/span><\/p>\n Then WWII came. While at age 35 he was too old to see active combat, Louis served stateside as a winter survival instructor (employing skills learned from growing up in North Dakota), as well as two years in Europe commanding a fleet of gas tankers. During the war, as you can imagine, he avidly consumed the <\/span>Armed Services Editions of the popular books of the time<\/span><\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n Upon returning from the war, magazines and publishers were looking not for the adventure stories that Louis previously had success with, but mysteries and Westerns. They were all the rage. Given the traveling and working L\u2019Amour did in the West, that\u2019s the direction he followed, not out of passion necessarily, but because that\u2019s where the market was leading him and where he ultimately found success. After getting over 100 short stories published in the next decade or so, he finally landed his first novel in 1951, <\/span>Westward the Tide<\/span><\/i><\/a>. <\/span><\/p>\n From then on, he cranked out multiple books a year. He found love and married Kathy Adams in 1956, and together they had a son, Beau (1961), and a daughter, Angelique (1964). Details about his family life are not easily found (he was a rather private fellow), but Louis kept up his torrid reading and writing pace until he died in 1988. <\/span><\/p>\n 1. Reading <\/b>is<\/i><\/b> your education.<\/b> Even though Louis didn\u2019t graduate high school, and his only college degrees came much later in life in the honorary form, he received quite an education, entirely of his own doing. He realized that to be successful, he would need to be educated, and that college was not in his cards. So he pursued an autodidactic curriculum of his own volition: <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThe idea of education has been so tied to schools, universities, and professors that many assume there is no other way, but education is available to anyone within reach of a library.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n And what did he expect of his self-made education? What was he hoping to gain? He explains: <\/span><\/p>\n \u201cIf I were asked what education should give, I would say it should offer breadth of view, ease of understanding, tolerance for others, and a background from which the mind can explore in any direction. Education should provide the tools for a widening and deepening of life, for increased appreciation of all one sees or experiences. It should equip a person to live life well, to understand what is happening about him.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Reading should expand your worldview and open you up to new ideas. It can and should provide frameworks and the basic foundation of a life well lived. That is why Louis credits books with saving his life \u2014 without them he would have been a permanent vagabond, perhaps dying too young in a work accident or a street fight (as many acquaintances of his did). <\/span><\/p>\n 2. You have time to read. Make time to read. <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cOften I hear people say they do not have time to read. That\u2019s absolute nonsense. In the one year during which I kept that kind of record, I read twenty-five books while waiting for people. In offices, applying for jobs, waiting to see a dentist, waiting in a restaurant for friends, many such places. I read on buses, trains, and planes. If one really wants to learn, one has to decide what is important. Spending an evening on the town? Attending a ball game? Or learning something that can be with you your life long?\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Life\u2019s many spare moments are packed with possibilities.<\/a> Don\u2019t let them be wasted on scrolling through Instagram or playing the latest fad game. The next time you find yourself with a small gap of time, crack open a book, and snatch a spot of reading. <\/span><\/p>\n 3. Read what\u2019s in front of you, and what\u2019s fun and entertaining. <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cWhatever the book, a reader reads.\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n For Louis, his reading was largely determined by what was available wherever he was working. From small bookshops overseas, to borrowing titles from shipmates, there just wasn\u2019t much choice in what he was reading, especially in his earlier years. <\/span><\/p>\n For most of us, our modern situation is a bit different. There are books everywhere. In fact too many books perhaps. You can go to a used bookshop or a Goodwill and grab a paperback for a buck (or even less sometimes). <\/span><\/p>\n Our problem is more that we actually have too much choice, and it paralyzes us<\/a>. My personal library \u2014 both physically and digitally \u2014 has perhaps hundreds of unread books, and I often just stare at it, wanting to pick the perfect title to dig into next (sometimes even before I\u2019ve finished something). Don\u2019t fall into that trap of being overwhelmed by endless options; just pick something and start reading. <\/span><\/p>\n This goes against the grain of Emerson\u2019s reading advice<\/a>, but if you\u2019re someone who just needs to read more or who needs to get started reading in the first place, this is the way to go. Just read what\u2019s right in front of you and what you\u2019ll truly enjoy rather than searching for the perfect book that will perhaps make you seem cultured. As L\u2019Amour suggests:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cFor those who have not been readers, my advice is to read what entertains you. Reading is fun. Reading is adventure. It is not important what you read at first, only that you read.\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n 4. Think about, and share with others, what you\u2019re learning. <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cIt is not enough to have learned, for living is sharing and I must offer what I have for whatever it is worth.\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n Living is sharing. Isn\u2019t that a wonderful idea? Whatever you\u2019re reading and learning about, make a point to share it with others. Start a book club (my wife and I have been in one for a few months now, and it\u2019s wonderful). Write a blog post or just a Facebook update with some good quotes. Share your insights or questions or thoughts at the dinner table with your family. <\/span><\/p>\n Beyond just sharing your reading, make a point to think about it throughout the day, <\/span>especially in moments of solitude<\/span><\/a>:<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cA book is less important for what it says than for what it makes you think.\u201d <\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n When you\u2019re taking time to think about what an author (or character) has said or done, you\u2019ll have more insightful tidbits to share with others. You\u2019ll be able to construct fuller mental models, and connect different ideas to each other in creative ways \u2014 something in high demand in our Google-driven world in which rote facts are accessible in mere seconds, but deeper analysis is rare<\/a>. It\u2019s especially easy to do this when performing menial manual tasks like weeding or washing the dishes. L\u2019Amour noted that \u201cOften when chipping rust or touching up paint, I thought about what I had been reading.\u201d You\u2019d be well-served to do the same. <\/span><\/p>\n 5. Read what others have read! <\/b><\/p>\n \u201cI have enjoyed digging into the reading habits of many great men and women and have tried where possible to get a list of the books in their libraries. . . . I hoped that by understanding the books these men and women read I might grasp at the basic sources of some of their ideas.\u201d<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n I was thrilled to find out that L\u2019Amour himself was a man who dug into the reading habits and libraries of people he admired. That\u2019s what this series<\/a> is all about, and I have to think he\u2019d be proud of the fact that folks are diving into <\/span>his<\/span><\/i> habits and collections in order to grow and find some reading inspiration. <\/span><\/p>\n![\"Louis](\"https:\/\/content.artofmanliness.com\/uploads\/2017\/09\/louis-2.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nThe Origins of Louis L\u2019Amour\u2019s Love Affair With the Written Word<\/h3>\n
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<\/a><\/p>\nLouis L\u2019Amour\u2019s Philosophy of Reading<\/h3>\n
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