Yondering
by Louis L'Amour
On This Page
Description
Fiction. Western. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:"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. Those were the rough years; often I was hungry, out of work and facing situations such as I have since written show more 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. I hope you'll enjoy Yondering."
—Louis L'Amour. show less
Tags
Recommendations
Member Reviews
A collection of short stories based on the life the author lived or people he knew when he was younger and wandering the world. I find the portrayals of life on the waterfront during the depression era haunting. It gives you a look a rougher era.
Louis L'Amour is probably best known for the dozens of western stories he cranked out, year after year. However, buried deep amongst his tales of the American "wild west" are some stories of seamen, adventurers, and explorers. Yondering is a collection of short stories of that ilk. I liked reading these remembrances of the author's younger wandering, aka "yondering" days, clothed in fictitious characters.
Louis Lamour has always been one of my favorites. His is usually a good sit down and enjoy read and if your not real careful you can learn a few things, since he always too time do do some research and he also was well read. I started out a little bet disappointed in this one, and started thinking that he may not be suited to short stories. In that vain it maybe hard for anyone when I immediately think of O'Henry. But the stores got better and were even enjoyable. I can't give it a 5 star like I do most of his novels, but I am glad I read it.
Short stories are okay, but I had enough by page 121. There were some stories I real liked and I was really enjoying then the story ended. Others that I pushed through and was glad when they ended.
Stories ranged from miners caught in a cave in, battles fought in the mountains and sand to a cruise liner sinking at sea. There were stories of adventure, more of survival and the slowest times in a sailors life: stranded in port.
Stick this book in a desk drawer or glove box and read a story at lunch or when you're stuck in a parking lot and you'll find more enjoyment of it than trying to read straight through it.
Stories ranged from miners caught in a cave in, battles fought in the mountains and sand to a cruise liner sinking at sea. There were stories of adventure, more of survival and the slowest times in a sailors life: stranded in port.
Stick this book in a desk drawer or glove box and read a story at lunch or when you're stuck in a parking lot and you'll find more enjoyment of it than trying to read straight through it.
A miscellaneous set of pulp adventure stories, but one of the first that got me interested in L'Amour whom I had thought of as just a western writer
This collection of short stories reminded me a bit of Clive Cussler's adventure stories.
Great Book!
Members
- Recently Added By
Author Information
870+ Works 99,170 Members
Born in Jamestown, North Dakota on March 22, 1908, Louis L'Amour's adventurous life could have been the subject of one of his novels. Striking out on his own in 1923, at age 15, L'Amour began a peripatetic existence, taking whatever jobs were available, from skinning dead cattle to being a sailor. L'Amour knew early in life that he wanted to be a show more writer, and the experiences of those years serve as background for some of his later fiction. During the 1930s he published short stories and poetry; his career was interrupted by army service in World War II. After the war, L'Amour began writing for western pulp magazines and wrote several books in the Hopalong Cassidy series using the pseudonym Tex Burns. His first novel, Westward the Tide (1950), serves as an example of L'Amour's frontier fiction, for it is an action-packed adventure story containing the themes and motifs that he uses throughout his career. His fascination with history and his belief in the inevitability of manifest destiny are clear. Also present and typical of L'Amour's work are the strong, capable, beautiful heroine who is immediately attracted to the equally capable hero; a clear moral split between good and evil; reflections on the Native Americans, whose land and ways of life are being disrupted; and a happy ending. Although his work is somewhat less violent than that of other western writers, L'Amour's novels all contain their fair share of action, usually in the form of gunfights or fistfights. L'Amour's major contribution to the western genre is his attempt to create, in 40 or more books, the stories of three families whose histories intertwine as the generations advance across the American frontier. The novels of the Irish Chantry, English Sackett, and French Talon families are L'Amour's most ambitious project, and sadly were left unfinished at his death. Although L'Amour did not complete all of the novels, enough of the series exists to demonstrate his vision. L'Amour's strongest attribute is his ability to tell a compelling story; readers do not mind if the story is similar to one they have read before, for in the telling, L'Amour adds enough small twists of plot and detail to make it worth the reader's while. L'Amour fans also enjoy the bits of information he includes about everything from wilderness survival skills to finding the right person to marry. These lessons give readers the sense that they are getting their money's worth, that there is more to a L'Amour novel than sheer escapism. With over 200 million copies of his books in print worldwide, L'Amour must be counted as one of the most influential writers of westerns in this century. He died from lung cancer on June 10, 1988. (Bowker Author Biography) Louis L'Amour, truly America's favorite storyteller, was the first fiction writer ever to receive the Congressional Gold Medal from the United States Congress in honor of his life's work, & was also awarded the Medal of Freedom. There are over 260 million copies of his books in print worldwide. (Publisher Provided) show less
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Yondering
- Original publication date
- 1980
- Epigraph
- Somewhere my love lay sleeping
Behind the lights of a far-off town;
So I gave my heart to a bend in the road,
And off I went, a-yondering. - Dedication
- To Marc Jaffe...A good friend and a fine gentleman from New York whom I met in a saloon in Elko, Nevada.
- First words
- In the passing of time when greater events occupy the attention of the world, some things are forgotten that should be remembered.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)You'll have adventure!
Classifications
Statistics
- Members
- 503
- Popularity
- 59,189
- Reviews
- 11
- Rating
- (3.49)
- Languages
- English, German, Norwegian (Bokmål)
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 19
- ASINs
- 12
