Education of a Wandering Man
by Louis L'Amour
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Book Summary Information
Author: Louis L'AmourEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1990-12-01
ISBN: 0553286528
Number of pages: 272
Publisher: Bantam
Book Reviews of Education of a Wandering Man
Book Review: A Traveler, Both Mental and Physical
Summary: 5 Stars
Although I have never read a fictional work by Louis L'Amour, I found this memoir both gratifying and strangely addictive. L'Amour recounts his youth and travels, which span the early half of twentieth century western America, punctuated with accounts of what he was reading along the way. These twofold activities, self directed reading and travel with real world experience at an incredible medley of tasks and occupations, constituted L'Amour's "education." Both pursuits would serve as ingredients for his artistic work.
L'Amour was an adventurous youth who left home to shift for himself during the great depression, hoboing from state to state to find work. All the while the young L'Amour read voraciously of whatever material he came upon by chance. The memoir paints an absorbing vignette of how life really was for a young man growing up in middle America during the early twentieth century. The author's run of the mill adventures remind me of another recent memoir, that of the celebrated fantasy writer Jack Vance, in his "This is Me, Jack Vance". Both books were to me sobering depictions of how difficult life was for even our immediate predecessors. The story of his adventures read like an authentic version of what books such as "On the Road" were meant to capture, without stooping to debauchery and perversion. L'Amour himself seconds this position when at one point he gives a tirade against the use of mind-altering drugs. What could be more pleasant than one's own musings and imaginings?
L'Amour clearly was a man of prodigious intellect, reading as many as 200 substantial books per year. There are lists at the end of all the books he read during the 1930s. I would say that L'Amour was an omnivorous reader, devouring each and every in his path, like the wild boar, whereas others tend to be more selective, seeking only the most strenuous prey like the tiger or bald eagle. Still many of the works on his lists are intellectually challenging books of nonfiction and philosophy.
L'Amour was no effete intellectual, by any means. He studied martial arts and boxing throughout his career, combining the techniques of American brawling with those he learned from masters in the far east. L'Amour falls into a seeming archetype of young men I have met who combine a love of books with a love of the martial arts. L'Amour transcends them all, however, as he seems never to have lost a fight (that he admits to us).
As a warning to other autodidacts and bibliophiles, I found myself intoxicated with the optimistic spirit of the author, often wishing to experience the books he had read. This book caused me to order at least ten other books!
Summary of Education of a Wandering Man
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.Authors Books
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