Status
Available
Genres
Publication
Bantam (1990), Paperback, 272 pages
Description
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.… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member BookAngel_a
In this book, L'Amour tells the story of how books gave him the education he didn't get in school. For personal and economic reasons (this was during the depression) he had to leave school and home and become a wandering worker - earning money wherever he could. He had an appetite for books and
When he finally was able to settle down, he focused his reading on specific topics that he wanted to learn about. He eventually became a successful author because he took time to learn of what he was writing. You'll not find historical errors in his books! Since he read voraciously, he learned what does and does not work in successful writing.
He says the greatest compliment he wanted was for someone to read his books and say "Yes, that's how it really was."
He realizes his education was unorthodox, and he says he wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but it worked very well for him.
Anyone who loves "books about books" will probably enjoy this memoir. He doesn't go into details that most memoirs do...such as how he met his wife, what fighting in WWII was like, the birth of his children, etc, but instead he focuses on the books he was reading while he was having certain adventures - and what those books taught him.
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knowledge - so he decided to educate himself by reading anything he could get his hands on. He often gave up food so he could read more books.When he finally was able to settle down, he focused his reading on specific topics that he wanted to learn about. He eventually became a successful author because he took time to learn of what he was writing. You'll not find historical errors in his books! Since he read voraciously, he learned what does and does not work in successful writing.
He says the greatest compliment he wanted was for someone to read his books and say "Yes, that's how it really was."
He realizes his education was unorthodox, and he says he wouldn't recommend it to everyone, but it worked very well for him.
Anyone who loves "books about books" will probably enjoy this memoir. He doesn't go into details that most memoirs do...such as how he met his wife, what fighting in WWII was like, the birth of his children, etc, but instead he focuses on the books he was reading while he was having certain adventures - and what those books taught him.
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LibraryThing member TadAD
This book is not an autobiography nor, despite the subtitle, much of a memoir and Mr. L'Amour states that right up front on pages 2 and 3. To some extent, I wish it had been, for Mr. L'Amour has clearly led quite an exciting life and most of the interesting bits he chooses to defer for another day.
I also think that Mr. L'Amour missed out on a great opportunity. A college professor of mine once said that everything you write needs to answer the question, "So what?" What I would have loved here…and what is conspicuously absent…is any reflection on what the books meant to him, how they affected his thoughts and beliefs, what impact their content had on his life.
A real biography about Mr. L'Amour would be a book worth trying. Hobo, sailor in the Far East, miner, soldier, boxer, author, lumberman…there's a lot of interesting life there. However, I could never escape the feeling in this particular book that what we were getting was not just "here's my life," but a carefully cultivated picture—perhaps a character out of one of his own novels: tall, handsome, laconic, self-reliant, moral, brave, competent with his fists yet intellectual and compassionate. There is just a bit too much artifice in lines like "I have known hunger of the belly kind many times over, but I have known a worse hunger: the need to know and learn." Of course, it is understandable that an autobiographer would want to present himself in a light he finds appealing. However, in this case, it sat at odds with his decided air of ingenuousness. I find myself asking, would a frank and forthright cowboy really spend much time making sure I believed him to be frank and forthright?
The value of this book lies almost as a reference work. Mr. L'Amour will pick a topic and give you his summary of the books he found most valuable on the topic. Interested in Turkestan?...read W. Bartold, Howorth, Pan-Ku b and Burton Watson. Want to know about the Apaches?...try Major John G. Bourke and John C. Cremony. I don't see this as a book I will ever reread. However, I do see it as a book I might consult, for there were many topics he mentioned that I would find interesting. At the end of the volume, he gathers much of his reading into a series of lists that might be seen as his analog of a Boxall 1001 list of books…a L'Amour 731.
I have to be interested in a person who can talk about his favorite World War I literature as The Case of Sergeant Grischa and All Quiet on the Western Front and then immediately move to Burrough's The Mastermind of Mars. It fits my own eclectic/eccentric reading tastes. However, I wish we'd had more in this book…more of the life stories, more of the man, more of the adventure in education.
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What it intends is "a story of an adventure in education." Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be much adventure in it that story. It starts well with some of his days as a hobo and his introduction to the Little Blue Book series of classics, then segues into a stint as a solitary mine assessor when there was nothing to do but work and read books left behind at the mine by a schoolteacher. However, as the book progresses and his life (presumably) becomes less adventurous, much of the content becomes "I wanted to know about Africa, so I read these five books; I wanted to know about frontier settlers, so I read these eight books." This isn't all unfortunate, as I shall talk about below, but, on the whole, I don't think the book delivered on its promise of adventure.I also think that Mr. L'Amour missed out on a great opportunity. A college professor of mine once said that everything you write needs to answer the question, "So what?" What I would have loved here…and what is conspicuously absent…is any reflection on what the books meant to him, how they affected his thoughts and beliefs, what impact their content had on his life.
A real biography about Mr. L'Amour would be a book worth trying. Hobo, sailor in the Far East, miner, soldier, boxer, author, lumberman…there's a lot of interesting life there. However, I could never escape the feeling in this particular book that what we were getting was not just "here's my life," but a carefully cultivated picture—perhaps a character out of one of his own novels: tall, handsome, laconic, self-reliant, moral, brave, competent with his fists yet intellectual and compassionate. There is just a bit too much artifice in lines like "I have known hunger of the belly kind many times over, but I have known a worse hunger: the need to know and learn." Of course, it is understandable that an autobiographer would want to present himself in a light he finds appealing. However, in this case, it sat at odds with his decided air of ingenuousness. I find myself asking, would a frank and forthright cowboy really spend much time making sure I believed him to be frank and forthright?
The value of this book lies almost as a reference work. Mr. L'Amour will pick a topic and give you his summary of the books he found most valuable on the topic. Interested in Turkestan?...read W. Bartold, Howorth, Pan-Ku b and Burton Watson. Want to know about the Apaches?...try Major John G. Bourke and John C. Cremony. I don't see this as a book I will ever reread. However, I do see it as a book I might consult, for there were many topics he mentioned that I would find interesting. At the end of the volume, he gathers much of his reading into a series of lists that might be seen as his analog of a Boxall 1001 list of books…a L'Amour 731.
I have to be interested in a person who can talk about his favorite World War I literature as The Case of Sergeant Grischa and All Quiet on the Western Front and then immediately move to Burrough's The Mastermind of Mars. It fits my own eclectic/eccentric reading tastes. However, I wish we'd had more in this book…more of the life stories, more of the man, more of the adventure in education.
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LibraryThing member jclemence
Louis L'Amour's poem, "I Haven't Read Gone with the Wind," includes the line, "For every book that they have read, I've read forty-nine." When L'Amour penned this, he was not speaking hyperbolically. He quite literally read more books in a single year--indeed, every single year--than many read in a
In "Education of a Wandering Man," the famous author of Westerns chronicles his life during the 1930s. At fifteen, he left his home in North Dakota to become a hobo--a traveling working man. He traveled extensively throughout the world for the next decade plus, while reading every book he could get his hands on. As the book title suggests, he truly educated himself during his wandering years, and would he have completed such learning in a scholastic setting, he would surely have attained multiple advanced degrees.
This was an excellent book to read for several reasons. First, it sheds light on a man who I thought was "just" a writer of Westerns. As it turns out, L'Amour was a lover of stories, nature and knowledge, and he prided himself on the historical accuracy of his books. Even if the characters were fictional, he took great pains to describe the settings, the land, the customs and even the language as they really would have been. Second, one learns in the book that L'Amour had a wide and varied past that included stints as a miner, sailor, prospector and boxer. Put simply, Louis L'Amour was a man's man, a hard-working, no-nonsense, no-excuses kind of guy, but with a softer poetry-loving, be-kind-to-animals side, too. Third, the book introduces the reader to a wide range of characters who turn up in L'Amour's life, most of whom are unlike anyone most of us might meet today and would be worthy of biographies (could they be written) in their own right.
I don't really have anything bad to say about this book. It's an inspirational, educational read about a man who should be a role model for us all.
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lifetime. In "Education of a Wandering Man," the famous author of Westerns chronicles his life during the 1930s. At fifteen, he left his home in North Dakota to become a hobo--a traveling working man. He traveled extensively throughout the world for the next decade plus, while reading every book he could get his hands on. As the book title suggests, he truly educated himself during his wandering years, and would he have completed such learning in a scholastic setting, he would surely have attained multiple advanced degrees.
This was an excellent book to read for several reasons. First, it sheds light on a man who I thought was "just" a writer of Westerns. As it turns out, L'Amour was a lover of stories, nature and knowledge, and he prided himself on the historical accuracy of his books. Even if the characters were fictional, he took great pains to describe the settings, the land, the customs and even the language as they really would have been. Second, one learns in the book that L'Amour had a wide and varied past that included stints as a miner, sailor, prospector and boxer. Put simply, Louis L'Amour was a man's man, a hard-working, no-nonsense, no-excuses kind of guy, but with a softer poetry-loving, be-kind-to-animals side, too. Third, the book introduces the reader to a wide range of characters who turn up in L'Amour's life, most of whom are unlike anyone most of us might meet today and would be worthy of biographies (could they be written) in their own right.
I don't really have anything bad to say about this book. It's an inspirational, educational read about a man who should be a role model for us all.
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LibraryThing member TimBazzett
First of all, I'm not one of L'Amour's big fans. I've read a few of his books over the years, but was never a rabid reader of westerns. I much enjoyed his novel, Hondo - one of his early successes - but didn't continue to follow him that closely. But since I knew he was one of the most popular and
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best-selling writers in American for forty-some years - and still sells a lot of books since his death more than twenty years ago - the idea of a "memoir" from this guy intrigued me. And it started out pretty well, telling a bit about his boyhood and first jobs and a life-long love affair with books. But then it just seemed he kind of lost his way, blathering on in a not very organized way about all the books he had read in his life and how our approach to history here in America was skewed and incomplete. Then he told small bits and pieces of his life on the road and at sea, visits to the Far East and other exotic places. But details, personal and other, are few and far between. It seemed he didn't want to give away anything very personal about his life. He dwelled way too long on how he had educated himself by reading - encyclopedically. And I love books too, so this should have been interesting, but in the end I found it simply boring and bland, and skimmed the last hundred pages or so, looking for some nuggets about L'Amour himself. He did serve in WWII, but he glosses over this in a few scant pages with almost no details at all, as if it were no more than an inconvenient interruption. So the book stayed boring. This book was published after L'Amour died, and I can't help wondering if he would have published it himself. Because, as all of his readers and fans know, he was a much MUCH better writer than this book demonstrates. If you want to read - and appreciate - Louis L'Amour, read his westerns. They are some of the best in the genre - up there with Zane Grey, Luke Short and (later) Elmer Kelton. Unfortunately, this so-called "memoir" is not worth the time. Show Less
LibraryThing member lamour
This man really did live a life that his heroes live in his fiction. The chapter that describes his two day walk across the Mojave Desert with only a can of peaches for survival is worth the price of the book alone. A wonderful read.
LibraryThing member Helm
Very entertaining work that details many of the events that obviously influenced the author's later works. Also includes a listing of books read by the author during his "yondering years". This list itself serves as a good body of recommended reading.
LibraryThing member Bill_Masom
I have read a lot of his novels when a young boy, my older brother I think still owns them all. What had always struck me about his stories was the fact that even though they were fiction, they felt true. And as he says in his book, they are basically true, the stories happened, just maybe not
What I really enjoyed about this is that he read for the same reason I do. To learn. And lke him, my reading wanders, from History, to Biography, Classics, Plays, even some poetry, and all points inbetween. Wherever the mood strikes, or an oppertune book presents itself.
I have learned much, and each time I read a book, it usually sparks an interest to read more about the subject, the times. the people, or person, or events mentioned, but not fully covered by the present book. Then I make a note and try to hunt a book down that will help fill in the gaps. Sometimes I am lucky, but other times I am still looking.
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exactly the way it was written, but somewhere and at sometime, it did happen.What I really enjoyed about this is that he read for the same reason I do. To learn. And lke him, my reading wanders, from History, to Biography, Classics, Plays, even some poetry, and all points inbetween. Wherever the mood strikes, or an oppertune book presents itself.
I have learned much, and each time I read a book, it usually sparks an interest to read more about the subject, the times. the people, or person, or events mentioned, but not fully covered by the present book. Then I make a note and try to hunt a book down that will help fill in the gaps. Sometimes I am lucky, but other times I am still looking.
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LibraryThing member jwhenderson
A memoir of a lifelong love affair with learning and books. Self-taught through both experience and reading Louis L'amour's account of his life is a unique journey that I found uplifting. His list of books he read in the 1930s is a good reference for any life-long reader.
LibraryThing member quilted_kat
This is my new favorite book. I'm not much into reading Westerns, and as such was not previously familiar with L'Amour's work. But this book really spoke to me as a fellow bibliophile.
L'Amour was largely self-educated. He believed that you should read; read anything, read everything, Read while you
This is a book following his travels as a young man through a multitude of professions (not, as so many have said, to research his writing, but because he had to eat.) and climates, and the books and education he found for himself along the way.
I especially love the bibliographies at then end of the lists he kept after 1930 of every book he read.
Read this book. It's intellectual, but written on a down-to-earth level that anyone will enjoy. Just read it, damnit!
L'Amour was largely self-educated. He believed that you should read; read anything, read everything, Read while you
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are waiting for the bus or waiting in line. It doesn't matter what you start reading, only that you are reading.This is a book following his travels as a young man through a multitude of professions (not, as so many have said, to research his writing, but because he had to eat.) and climates, and the books and education he found for himself along the way.
I especially love the bibliographies at then end of the lists he kept after 1930 of every book he read.
Read this book. It's intellectual, but written on a down-to-earth level that anyone will enjoy. Just read it, damnit!
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LibraryThing member jasongibbs
This is a fantastic book for book lovers. L'amour gives details on his incredible life and the books that influenced him. This is a great source for finding books you ought to read.
LibraryThing member SDaisy
This is an interesting, well-written book about the famed author of Western novels and short stories, Louis L'Amour. In this book, L'Amour talks about how he left school because he felt they could not teach him all he wanted to learn, and the book goes through the many ways in which he educated
This book is an accurate portrayal of the colorful history of the islands of Hawaii, from before James Cook's supposed 'discovery', to the changes Hawaii underwent when the U.S. claimed it
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himself. From learning from those that have been-there-done-that, to reading every book he had the good fortune to find, to traveling place to place and working many jobs (ranging from caretaker at a mine, to lumberjack, to skinner of dead cattle, to, of course, author), it will amaze the reader to see how L'Amour went about gaining a thorough education. And at the end of the book, it gives a very insightful list of many of the books he has read to accomplish his purpose. I would recommend this book to not only to anybody who loves Louis L'Amour, but also to anybody interested in furthering their education without the assistance (or the hindrance, as L'Amour might have said) of public schools.This book is an accurate portrayal of the colorful history of the islands of Hawaii, from before James Cook's supposed 'discovery', to the changes Hawaii underwent when the U.S. claimed it
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LibraryThing member Chris_El
Never stop learning. And real education is often not found in a classroom. This is the story of man that sold over a million books he wrote. And no college degree. He traveled the world and had great adventures. He reminds me of the uncles in the movie "Second Hand lions" only his stories are true.
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And this is his stories in his own words. Show Less
LibraryThing member dickcraig
This book started my practice of writing down every book I have read.
LibraryThing member nules
This was assigned reading for some English class or other. I think the teacher chose well. Anyway, it’s an excellent book. Louis L'Amour had an interesting life. This book definitely helps to inspire one to read more.
LibraryThing member moibibliomaniac
The number of books L'Amour read astounds me. The phrase, " I never met a book I didn't like." I don't remember him speaking hill of any book he read, and there were hundreds. I'd like to sell L"Amour's 10,000 on LIbrary thing one day, and will even help with the cataloging, but to date the L'Amour
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family does not want to release a catalog of the library to the public. Show Less
LibraryThing member MathMaverick
I've only read a few books by Louis L'Amour, but Education of a Wandering Man is amazing. You do not have to he a fan of L'Amour to enjoy and benefit from this book. He was a very interesting and truely self-made and self-educated man. For me, a very inspirational book.
LibraryThing member ecw0647
Several years ago I helped a dear old friend (he died a day after his 102nd birthday in 2009) edit his memoirs. He was not new to writing. In his younger years he had produced an interesting series of essays about his love for the farm he had purchased and the horses he rode called River Hill
The last item that we worked on, however, Diary of a Journeyman, despite my best efforts became a litany, a virtual list, of the many friends he had had during his years as the editorial director for a large printing and publishing firm in Mt. Morris, Illinois that produced fraternal organization magazines. He was afraid of leaving anyone out regardless of their importance. Clarence, like L'Amour was self-educated and never had much formal education. He went on to become a wealthy benefactor of the local community college and its library of which I was the director. I helped him self-publish Diary of a Journeyman and Montana Montage, but by that time, he had outlived most of the people in Diary so the very limited initial market had dwindled even more.
So it is with L'Amour's book. Far from the action-packed westerns that built a large following (I'm but a lukewarm fan as I find much of his writing pedestrian), this book borders on being merely a catalog of the books he has read over the years with assorted comments. The writing, in its short cadences with abrupt transitions reminded me so much of Clarence's final product it was eerie, the only difference being that the subjects were books rather than persons. It's very superficial and of only limited interest. I fear I must admit to skimming it quite quickly.
That Daniel J. Boostin, one of my favorite cultural historians -- his trilogy The Americans, which I read in the late seventies, is enthralling history and brilliantly written -- speaks more to his friendship with L'Amour than the book's content.
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Soliloquy. It was published by the University of Illinois Press. After his death I had it reissued as an ebook. The book had a local following. The book I helped to edit years later called Montana Montage was a collection of stories from his very early days as a trail hand in Montana. It had considerable historical interest.The last item that we worked on, however, Diary of a Journeyman, despite my best efforts became a litany, a virtual list, of the many friends he had had during his years as the editorial director for a large printing and publishing firm in Mt. Morris, Illinois that produced fraternal organization magazines. He was afraid of leaving anyone out regardless of their importance. Clarence, like L'Amour was self-educated and never had much formal education. He went on to become a wealthy benefactor of the local community college and its library of which I was the director. I helped him self-publish Diary of a Journeyman and Montana Montage, but by that time, he had outlived most of the people in Diary so the very limited initial market had dwindled even more.
So it is with L'Amour's book. Far from the action-packed westerns that built a large following (I'm but a lukewarm fan as I find much of his writing pedestrian), this book borders on being merely a catalog of the books he has read over the years with assorted comments. The writing, in its short cadences with abrupt transitions reminded me so much of Clarence's final product it was eerie, the only difference being that the subjects were books rather than persons. It's very superficial and of only limited interest. I fear I must admit to skimming it quite quickly.
That Daniel J. Boostin, one of my favorite cultural historians -- his trilogy The Americans, which I read in the late seventies, is enthralling history and brilliantly written -- speaks more to his friendship with L'Amour than the book's content.
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LibraryThing member PRusso
Spotty. Enjoyed the places he wrote about his developing love for books and how they became his best friends on his lifelong travels. Learned that there is actually a significant difference between a hobo and a tramp. Who knew?
The places where he editorialized about various subjects took much away
The places where he editorialized about various subjects took much away
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from the reading experience. Show Less
LibraryThing member MusicforMovies
An excellent memoir full of little anecdotes that illustrates the vast difference between schooling and an education; not only a slice of history and a vast transverse to different lands and cultures, but a compelling biographical sketch of famous Western novelist.
LibraryThing member NLytle
I had trouble rating this book because it alternated between tedious and enthralling. The book was a somewhat rambling collection of biographical stories, philosophy on life, and observations about contemporary (1980s) society combined with how L'Amour educated himself by reading multitudes of
L'Amour was the best selling author who specialized in writing westerns, but who also wrote on other topics, including a historical novel on the middles ages (The Walking Drum) and a novel about a captured American pilot escaping from a Siberian prison during the cold war (The Last of the Breed). I still enjoy reading his novels.
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books. Many of the book titles are included, and he even supplies a appendix listing the books he read by year for the 1930s. The best portions of the book dealt with his biographical stories. Unfortunately, he died before writing a true autobiography.L'Amour was the best selling author who specialized in writing westerns, but who also wrote on other topics, including a historical novel on the middles ages (The Walking Drum) and a novel about a captured American pilot escaping from a Siberian prison during the cold war (The Last of the Breed). I still enjoy reading his novels.
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LibraryThing member sross008
Should have been titled, Education of a Rambling Man, for that was the essence of the man and this loosely structured autobiography. Okay, okay, I get it that L'Amour educated himself through reading, but there wasn't enough critical evaluation of all of that reading for my appetite. I wanted to
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know WHAT specifically he learned from so much reading, but his pastime seemed more obsessive in nature or done purely out of boredom and not for any great quest for insight. I don't recall reading any passages at all about the sex life of a cowboy, for example, but surely from all of his readings he should know we readers need a sprinkling of that in his own autobiography! Why the cover photo of such a ruggedly handsome Marlboro Man and then no sharing of sensuality in his autobiography, other than to write over and over he was passionate about reading, and then eventually took up writing? Did he hook up with hookers in Shanghai or not? Did he deflower any damsels in the Dust Bowl? The more detailed passages describing how he cheated death on the edge of wilderness were interesting, but the endless lists of books he read or reread in different ports while waiting to be paid or transported became fatiguing. I didn't finish the book, as my mind began to wander too, and not being such a voracious reader as he, I intend to be more selective. Show Less
LibraryThing member TheGalaxyGirl
Not your typical memoir. A personal history of education through various random books and travel by one of America's most iconic writers. I found this to be very interesting. I would have liked to have met L'Amour on his journeys.
LibraryThing member MrsLee
L'Amour tells the story of his early years and how he educated himself. He was not one for the traditional classroom, leaving school at fifteen years of age and working any jobs he could find. He rode the rails to far off places and when that wasn't far enough, joined the crew of an overseas
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freighter. This is the story of his memories of those years, but especially of the books he read. He had a hunger to learn and a driving curiosity. During his travels he always had a book about him, and spent time in whatever free library was at hand. His reading tastes were omnivorous. He not only read books though. He was a keen observer of the people around him and often began conversations with strangers so that he could learn about whatever area he had ended up in. The story is interesting, and sheds much light on the adventures of the people and places he wrote about in later years. Show Less
LibraryThing member fuzzi
Not strictly an autobiography, this is an interesting set of memoirs from the author: he relates tales of his youth, and how his experiences and the books he read helped to educate him and turn him into a writer. Good read.
LibraryThing member jcwords
I found L'Amour's autobiographical account of his education very inspiring. No matter how you feel about westerns, you'll find that L'Amour is a master storyteller. His vast reading informs his writing, and makes it far richer than average genre fiction.
Subjects
Language
Original publication date
1989
Physical description
272 p.; 4.17 inches
ISBN
0553286528 / 9780553286526