Yondering

Before Louis L'Amour settled down and became famous for writing Westerns he traveled and worked around the world. "Yondering" is a collection of stories from this time period. These are the stories of an men fighting the Germans in Greece at the start of WWII, of a sailor trying to get gold to the daughter of a dead man, of miners, of men on the edge of hungry in San Pedro, of the survivors from a ship sinking who last long enough at sea to be rescued, of incidents in Shanghai, and other stories. There is a richness in these stories from what life was like for average people a hundred years ago. It was a hard life. Louis L'Amour could tell these stories because he had lived through similar experiences. This was a hard book to put down. Louis L'Amour has always been one of my favorite authors. If you like real life adventures from a time long ago, this is a good book to read. If you've enjoyed any of Louis L'Amour's stories, give this book a try.

I grew up with my dad's Louis 'Lamour westerns around the house, which didn't interest me, but this book caught my attention. If you've ever read the "about the author" entry in a L'amour book than you will find this book interesting. A big part of this book is based on his years as an able bodied seaman. Stories in this book deal with life at sea "Thicker Than Blood" life at overseas ports "The Admiral" and "Shanghal, Not without Gestures" and life in the 1930's California waterfront "Old Doc Yak." L'amour's daughter is currently working on a biography which should shed some new light on these years. I still have my wornout copy that I carried accross the Pacific and Indian Ocean and I recommend this book to every young person who wants to get the most out of life.

_I do so love this book. Alot of hack writers have done war stories, adventure stories, and sea stories like these, but in L'Amour's case you know that he has actually been there, actually done that. I've read alot of this author's work over the years, but this is probably my favorite of his books. _Here is a working man that has actually travelled to the rough and wild places in these stories (and when they were much rougher and much wilder.) He has done the hard labor and endured the harder conditions. This is refreshing in a period when it seems that all working people are automatically assumed to be ignorant, if not stupid. Louis L'Amour was a working man that not only loved books the whole time he was working, wandering, and fighting, but he went on to become one of the best-selling authors of the 20th century. _It is funny, back when I first read this book, before I had done most of my own "yondering", I read them with a sense of awe, envy, and a grain of salt. Now, when I read them it is with a sense of recognition and validation. Yup, I recognise that situation, I recognise that character. He got it exactly right. Some things really don't change whether you are talking the Wild West, the 1930's, or...now!

I do so love this book. A lot of hack writers have done war stories, adventure stories, and sea stories like these, but in L'Amour's case you know that he has actually been there, actually done that. I've read much of this author's work over the years, but this is probably my favorite of his books.Here is a working man that has actually travelled to the rough and wild places in these stories (and when they were much rougher and much wilder.) He has done the hard labor and endured the harder conditions. This is refreshing in a period when it seems that all working people are automatically assumed to be ignorant, if not stupid. Louis L'Amour was a working man that not only loved books the whole time he was working, wandering, and fighting, but he went on to become one of the best-selling authors of the 20th century. It is funny, back when I first read this book, before I had done most of my own "yondering", I read them with a sense of awe, envy, and a grain of salt. Now, when I read them it is with a sense of recognition and validation. Yup, I recognise that situation, I recognise that character. He got it exactly right. Some things really don't change whether you are talking the Wild West, the 1930's, or...now! This entry refers to the deluxe leatherette hard cover edition for the Louis Lamour Collection Library.

The late Louis L'Amour was a troubadour, in the old meaning of the word. He had stories to tell based on his own experiences and travels. In this book he relates some of them.Louis says, "Over the years I have been proud to write about the men and women of the American frontier. But I have written many stories with entirely different settings which I have long wanted to share with my readers."I have collected some of these in Yondering. They are glimpses of what my own life was like during the early years. These were rough years; often I was hungry, out of work and facing situations such as I have since written about."Although these stories take place in a variety of locales, they are stories of people living under conditions similar to the way they might have lived on the frontier."Louis L'Amour (originally Lamoore) left home and began his yondering at the age of 15. He was a circus roustabout, logger, miner, merchant seaman, cowboy, and an army officer in tank destroyers during WWII. A man's man, who wrote about things he had lived--like Papa Hemingway, Robert Service and others who wrote convincingly--Louis wrote something like 100 books, mostly about the American West of the 19th century. He is sorely missed.Joseph H Pierre author of the Road to Damascus: Our Journey Through Eternity