Stutsman County native
Louis L'Amour was born in Jamestown, North Dakota. The family name was originally L'Moore or Larmour, reflecting the French-Canadian background. His father had many occupations, including a salesman of farm machinery, a veterinarian, a chief police, and a teacher. L'Amour's mother was trained as a teacher, and she was also an amateur poet. The future author grew up hearing stories of pioneers and Native Americans. He began reading earlier than most - from his parent's bookshelf he found collections of Longfellow, Whittier, Lowell, and Emerson. All in the family had library cards.
From the ages of fifteen to nineteen L'Amour worked at a variety of jobs: he tried boxing, worked as a circus hand, a lumberjack, and a seaman, and traveled in the Far East, China, and Africa. He was even an elephant handler for a while. During the 1930s he became a successful boxer and traveled in Asia. After returning to the United States he moved with his parents on a small farm near Choctaw, Oklahoma.
During World War ll Louis served in the U. S. Army as a lieutenant. He recieved four bronze stars
"I am probably the last writer who will ever have known the people who lived the frontier life. In drifting about across the West, I have known five men and two women who knew Billy the Kid, two who rode in the Tonto Basin war in Arizona, and a variety of others who were outlaws, or frontier marshals like Jeff Milton, Bill Tilghman, and Chris Madse, or just pioneers." (from Education of a Wondering Man, 1989)
At the time of his death it was estimated that L'Amour had published 101 novels, short story collections, poetry and non-fiction. In spite of his reputation of the ultimate western story writer, L'Amour's first book in 1939 was a collection of poems. Several of his novels were also adapted into screen. L'Amour was an avid reader and in EDUCATION OF A WANDERING MAN (1989) he gives a colorful picture of his adventurous early years which were also years of reading. "Books are the building blocks of civilization, for without the written word, a man knows nothing beyond what occurs during his own brief years and, perhaps, in a few tales his parents tell him."
