Louis L'amour

"He killed me," the dying man had said. "He stabbed me." Those words stayed with young Jean Talon as he journeyed westward, finally reaching the Missouri in search of a simple and honest life building river boats. But the stranger died. And that meant unraveling a deadly knot that tied together a vicious renegade's army, the Louisiana Purchase, and the missing brother of a beautiful, headstrong woman. Too near the truth to break away, Jean Talon turns in the tools of his trade for a far more dangerous kind of work--the kind that either gets men killed or earns them a new home in a violent, untamed land.

The open West was a land where wanderers could find themselves a home--a home to fight for, to be changed by, sometimes to die for. Jed Ashbury was one such journeyman, taking on the identity of a dead man. Allen Ring was another: he'd won his plot of land in a card game only to find he had to win again with a gun. From a has-been boxer to a ranch hand taking on his bosses' troubles, the characters in these classic Louis L'Amour short stories are all "riding for the brand"-staying loyal to what matters, staking the West with their courage and their blood.

Hopalong rides into a firestorm of violence and betrayal. On the rain-drenched trail to the lawless town of Seven Pines, Hopalong discovers two men -- one dead, the other badly wounded. Returning with medical help, Hopalong finds the wounded man has been shot through the temple. Who would commit such a murder? To find out, Hopalong hires on at Bob Ronson's Rocking R Ranch. There he learns that more than a thousand cattle have been run off by men keeping one scheming eye on the ranch and the other on the monthly stagecoach shipments of gold. Hopalong is determined to stop those responsible. But even the best gunfighter needs men he can trust to watch his back, men willing to risk their lives to do what's right. With their help, Hopalong fights to save the Rocking R, only to find himself the target of a ruthless gunman in a life-and-death struggle for frontier justice.

Little did Louis L'Amour realize back in 1960 when he published The Daybreakers, a novel about two brothers who came west after the Civil War, that he had begun creating what would become perhaps North America's most widely followed literary family: the Sacketts. The stories of ten generations of Sackett men and women as they forged westward from tyranny-wracked seventeenth-century England across the American continent have captivated readers for three decades through seventeen novels with nearly forty millions copies in print. The traditions and adventures of this family of rugged individualists who stand indomitably united when any Sackett is in trouble have inspired country songs, a popular television miniseries starring Tom Selleck (as Orrin Sackett) and Sam Elliot (as Tell Sackett), thousands of reader queries--and now, a rare full-length work of non-fiction by the worlds' all-time best-selling frontier novelist. In a 60 Minutes profile in which he hailed Louis L'Amour as "our professor emeritus of how the West was won," correspondent Morley Safer observed that "his plots may be fiction but the details therein are fact." The Sackett Companion is the author's long-savored opportunity to present the research and probe the factors behind his Sackett fiction--novel by novel--and to elaborate on their real and fictional characters, their geography and locales, and their historical eras in encyclopedia-like detail. In this book, subtitled A Personal Guide To The Sackett Novels, L'Amour takes us on a guided tour of his imagination to introduce us to the never-before-told sources and inspirations for these stories and the people and places that populate them. He retraces some of his travels in which he has walked the land the Sacketts walk, reliving such personal memories as the street fight he had on a hot dusty morning in New Mexico that ultimately led to the birth of the Sacketts.

In this first of four classic frontier novels, Louis L'Amour adds his own special brand to the life and adventures of one of America's favorite fictional cowboys, Hopalong Cassidy. In The Rustlers of West Fork, the quick-thinking, fast-shooting cowpuncher heads west to deliver a fortune in bank notes to his old friend, Dick Jordan. When he arrives at the Circle J, he discovers that the rancher and his daughter, Pam, are being held prisoner by a desperate band of outlaws led by the ruthless Avery Sparr and his partner Arnold Soper. Even if Hopalong Cassidy can free Jordan and Pam, he will have to lead them across rough and untamed Apache country, stalked by the outlaws who have vowed to gun him down. But Hopalong is no stranger to trouble, and before his guns or his temper cool, he's determines to round up Sparr and his gang and bring the outlaws to justice ... dead or alive! This classic tale of pursuit and survival is vintage L'Amour and adds new life and luster to the legend of Hopalong Cassidy.

Meet the frontier bad men -- like Leo Carver -- a man so hated that everyone in the town of Canyon Gap planned to turn up for his hanging. Then meet those who dared to challenge them -- like Marshal Lou Morgan, who tried to save his citizens from a goldmine swindler, only to learn that his own code of honesty made him the biggest sucker in town. There's champion rodeo rider Marty Mahan, called a coward because he was afraid of the bronc Ghost Maker -- until he showed them the true color of his courage. Here are classic tales of the West from the storyteller who brings to vivid life the brave men of women who settled the North American frontier.

From his decision to leave school at fifteen to roam the world, to his recollections of life as a hobo on the Southern Pacific Railroad, as a cattle skinner in Texas, as a merchant seaman in Singapore and the West Indies, and as an itinerant bare-knuckled prizefighter across small-town America, here is Louis L'Amour's memoir of his lifelong love affair with learning--from books, from yondering, and from some remarkable men and women--that shaped him as a storyteller and as a man. Like classic L'Amour fiction, Education of a Wandering Man mixes authentic frontier drama--such as the author's desperate efforts to survive a sudden two-day trek across the blazing Mojave desert--with true-life characters like Shanghai waterfront toughs, desert prospectors, and cowboys whom Louis L'Amour met while traveling the globe. At last, in his own words, this is a story of a one-of-a-kind life lived to the fullest . . . a life that inspired the books that will forever enable us to relive our glorious frontier heritage.

Smoke From This Altar, a book that has become legendary among Louis L'Amour readers, is the very first book L'Amour ever published. It appeared, to great critical praise, for sale only in Oklahoma bookstores more than fifty years ago. Since then it has become the most sought-after L'Amour title of all, with the few circulating copies from the small print run commanding top dollar from rare book collectors. Now, at last, it is being published nationally in this beautiful keepsake Bantam edition. It was in Smoke From This Altar that L'Amour first gave public voice to his now-celebrated spirit of wanderlust. Like the short stories in his classic, million-copy-selling Yondering, and his best-selling memoir Education of a Wandering Man, the poems in this book are inspired by his experiences and memories of his journeys across oceans and continents. It is vintage L'Amour storytelling--in verse--about nature, the land, and the people who loved and braved it. Smoke From This Altar begins with a newly written introduction by his wife Kathy in which she discusses the special place this work has held in the L'Amours' lives. In concludes with twenty previously uncollected L'Amour poems selected by his family. Impassioned, adventurous, heroic, and humorous, Smoke From This Altar is unique L'Amour writing, to be read and enjoyed again and again.

Shortly before his death in June 1988, Louis L'Amour completed writing his most unique adventure story: a personal reflection on his lifelong love affair with learning. Now Bantam Books proudly presents this special Centennial Edition of Education of a Wandering Man, in which L'Amour vividly recalls many of the books he read, the places he visited, and the people he met that catalyzed his evolution as a writer. In this, his most personal book ever, L'Amour writes of growing up in Jamestown, North Dakota, of the parents who instilled in him a love of the printed and spoken word, and of his decision to leave school at fifteen to make the world his classroom. While his contemporaries attended high school, L'Amour skinned cattle in Texas, worked as a circus roustabout and a mine caretaker, won small-town prizefighting exhibitions, hoboed across Texas on the Southern Pacific, and shipped out to the West Indies, England, and Singapore as a merchant seaman. Wherever he wandered, his pockets were always bulging with books. Like the beloved Louis L'Amour novels and short stories that preceded it, Education of a Wandering Man has its share of frontier drama--such as the author's desperate two-day trek across the blazing Mojave Desert--and robust characters, ranging from Shanghai waterfront toughs to itinerant desert prospectors. All this ultimately informed and inspired the books that have made L'Amour one of the most widely read authors of our time. Ever both teacher and storyteller, Louis L'Amour makes his education our education, in a book filled with glorious asides on everything from hobo culture to the fate of Butch Cassidy. Here is a testament--part memoir, part reflection--in which the author bequeaths to us a most wonderful legacy of the "education of a wandering man" a life lived to the fullest through the never-ending quest for knowledge.

The story was that Eli Patterson had died in a gunfight, but Mike Shevlin knew it couldn't be true: the man who'd been like a father to him had been a Quaker. But when Shevlin rides back to Rafter Crossing to uncover the truth, he finds that the quiet ranching community has become a booming mining town. Newfound wealth has not made Rafter a peaceful place, however, and the smell of fear and greed is thick in the air. As Mike Shevlin tries to unravel the mystery of Patterson's death, he is led deeper and deeper into a conspiracy that controls not only the fate of Rafter Crossing but the heart of a beautiful but tormented young woman--and Shevlin's own destiny.

THE LEGENDS OF THE WEST In this exciting collection of short stories, Louis L'Amour, the legendary voice of the American West, celebrates the unique breed of men who worked the great cattle ranches. Men like Dan Regan, who refused to surrender when trouble came . . . Con Fargo, who would fight for what was his--despite the odds . . . Rowdy Horn, a small-time rancher with big-time dreams . . . Tandy Thayer, too loyal to forget a friend . . . Bill Carey, who might have fallen low, but not low enough to let the likes of Tabat Ryerson ride off with a woman like Jane Conway . . . and in the classic title story, Danny Lonigan, a hard rider who faced a group of rustlers without fear--or mercy.

Bill Canavan rode into the valley with a dream to start his own ranch. But when he managed to stake claims on the three best water holes, the other ranchers turned against him. No one is more determined to see Canavan dead than Star Levitt. Levitt is an unscrupulous businessman who has been accumulating cattle at an alarming rate. Suspicious after witnessing a secret meeting between the riders of warring ranches, Bill begins noticing other dubious behavior: Why is Levitt's fianc e, Dixie Venable, acting more like a hostage than a willing bride-to-be? Canavan doesn't have much time to figure out what's going on. The entire valley is against him, and everyone is ready to shoot on sight.

For decades, generations of readers have shared their favorite passages of favorite Louis L'Amour novels and short stories: parents with their children, neighbors with their friends, executives with their staff and clergy with their congregations. They pass around dog-eared copies of the books, underlined and yellowing, recalling words that echoes in their readers' hearts and minds long after the last page was turned. Now, many of these selections have been collected in a remarkable volume representing some of the richest ore of the L'Amour lode: voices that heralded the settling of the frontier, of the man and women whose spirit and soul shaped our nation. In these words, Louis L'Amour describes the American experience, bringing our heritage to life, in ways no other author has. No L'Amour reader has a more unique perspective on his work than Angelique, his only daughter. In an extraordinary feat for every Louis L'Amour fan, and in loving appreciation of her father, she has compiled "A Trail Of Memories: The Quotations Of Louis L'Amour," drawn from her father's best-loved works of fiction, including the Sackett novels, "Last Of The Breed," "The Walking Drum" and nearly two dozen others." By reading his words, each reader has met a part of my father, " she writes in her introduction. "Each hero has a bit of Dad's experience that makes him who he is. With Lanso, it is all those boxing matches as Dad grew up. With Barnabas Sackett, it is the sailor and explorer in my father... I think that this collection of quotations from my father's books reveals much of what makes Dad who he is, for these words are the heart and soul of what he believes, andwhat he wants to leave behind." Angelique has selected nearly a thousand of her favorite, most powerful and poignant L'Amour quotations -- arranged by category and annotated with the book in which it appears -- on more than a score of universal subjects such as: Love, Friendship and Loyalty; Family and Home; Honor, the Law and Justice; the Frontier; Women; and Men and Bravery, One such example from "Sackett's Land": "He never knew when he was whipped -- so he never was." A wonderful gift from a daughter to her father -- and from Angelique L'Amour to her father's readers -- "A Trail Of Memories: The Quotations Of Louis L'Amour" will be a cherished keepsake of words to enjoy, and words to live by.

Tom Chantry wore no gun and wished no man harm. French Williams was a ruthless cattleman more than willing to use his weapon. But Tom needed Williams to help him drive a herd north to Dodge. Setting off together on a trail alive with danger, soft-spoken Chantry and hard-bitten Williams faced storms, treachery, and Indian attacks. Now the man some call a coward and the man many call a killer have no choice but to trust each other with their lives--for both have enemies and both are pursued by a violence from the past.

He's a two-fisted American adventurer and veteran of a hundred waterfront brawls. He's "Ponga Jim" Mayo, and he minds his own business and leaves international intrigue to others. But, as master of his own tramp freighter, trouble seeks him out as he navigates the treacherous East Indian seas from Borneo to Singapore. Never one to back away from danger, Jim straps on his colt automatic and takes the helm of the Semiramis, ready to battle pirates and spies, dope peddlers and gunrunners and whoever else dares to challenge his command...and God help the man who crosses Jim Mayo.

A word from Louis L'Amour:"Almost forty years ago, when my fiction was being published exclusively in 'pulp' western magazines, I wrote several novel-length stories, which my editors called 'magazine novels'. In creating them, I became so involved with my characters that their lives were still as much a part of me as I was of them long after the issues in which they appeared became collector's items. Pleased as I was about how I brought the characters and their adventures to life in the pages of the magazines, I still wanted the reader to know more about my people and why they did what they did. So, over the years, I revised and expanded these magazine works into fuller-length novels that I published in paperback under other titles." These particular early magazine versions of my books have long been a source of great speculation and curiosity among many of my readers, so much so of late, that I'm now pleased to collect three of them into book form for the first time." I hope you enjoy them."

"Almost four decades ago, when my fiction was being published exclusively in 'pulp' western magazines, I wrote a number of novel-length stories, known back then as 'magazine novels'. In creating them, I lived with my characters so closely that their lives were still as much a part of me as I was of them long after the issues in which they appeared went out of print. Proud as I was of how I presented the characters and their adventures in the pages of the magazines, I wanted to tell the reader more about my people and why they did what they did. So, over the years, I revised and expanded these magazine works into novels that I published as full-length paperbacks under different titles. These particular early magazine versions of my books have long been a source of considerable speculation and curiosity among many of my readers, so much so of late, that now I've decided to bring four of my 'magazine novels' back into print in this latest volume of my short fiction. I Hope you enjoy them."--Louis L'Amour

In Jubal Sackett, the second generation of Louis L'Amour's great American family pursues a destiny in the wilderness of a sprawling new land. Jubal Sackett's urge to explore drove him westward, and when a Natchez priest asks him to undertake a nearly impossible quest, Sackett ventures into the endless grassy plains the Indians call the Far Seeing Lands. He seeks a Natchez exploration party and its leader, Itchakomi. It is she who will rule her people when their aging chief dies, but first she must vanquish her rival, the arrogant warrior Kapata. Sackett's quest will bring him danger from an implacable enemy . . . and show him a life--and a woman--worth dying for.

TURN HOME, RIDER In this land, the place you leave behind might not be there when you get back. At least not the way you knew it. Tack Gentry of the G Bar, Chat Lock of Dutchman's Flat, and Ward McQueen of the Tumbling K knew how it felt to struggle against men who were trying to take from them what they believed in. For the bad rush in when the good leave, and men will choose to fight, not just over drunken threats, gambling losses, and honor, but for land, friendships, family, and even love--a struggle magnificently captured in these eleven great stories written and handpicked by the incomparable Louis L'Amour himself.

In The Sackett Brand, Louis L'Amour spins the story of a courageous man who must face overwhelming odds to track down a killer. Tell Sackett and his bride, Ange, came to Arizona to build a home and start a family. But on Black Mesa something goes terribly wrong. Tell is ambushed and badly injured. When he finally manages to drag himself back to where he left Ange, she is gone. Desperate, cold, hungry, and with no way to defend himself, Tell is stalked like a wounded animal. Hiding from his attackers, his rage and frustration mounting, he tries to figure out who the men are, why they are trying to kill him, and what has happened to his wife. Discovering the truth will be risky. And when he finally does, it will be their turn to run.