The Sixth Shotgun
by Louis L'Amour
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Description
Fiction. Western. The gallows are going up in Canyon Gap and wild-spirited Leo Carver is going to swing. A known troublemaker without an alibi, Leo certainly had motives for holding up the stage and killing two men, yet he still proclaims his innocence. There's a lot of folks who want to believe him, because although Leo Carver is a hard-living, free-spending maverick, he is the kind of man the West needs. But as an angry mob forms outside the jail demanding a hanging, a beautiful woman is show more asking questions—the kind that could uncover a smoking shotgun—and a twisted motive for murder. show lessTags
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Member Reviews
This book is a collection of two of L'Amour's stories, one short and the other much longer, both in their original formats as he wrote them first. There is also a lengthy foreword by Jon Tuska, talking about the life and career of L'Amour and detailing the themes L'Amour followed in his Westerns.
The short story is, well, short, crisp, and entertaining. The longer one is more detailed with fine descriptions of the locales, some interesting characters, and is equally entertaining. The foreword adds to the fun by bringing out the quirks of the much loved author and his prose.
This one is a little packet of fun, designed to lift the reader's spirit.
The short story is, well, short, crisp, and entertaining. The longer one is more detailed with fine descriptions of the locales, some interesting characters, and is equally entertaining. The foreword adds to the fun by bringing out the quirks of the much loved author and his prose.
This one is a little packet of fun, designed to lift the reader's spirit.
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Author Information
870+ Works 99,526 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
- Original publication date
- 1949
- People/Characters
- Leo Carver; Old Pap; Editor Chafee; Jase Ford; Mitch Williams; Doc Spender (show all 18); Mort Lewand; Webb Pascal; Lane Moore; Bob Keyes; Widow Ferguson; Ruth Hadlin; Emory Hadlin; Mary Ryan; Doctor Luther; Scott Taylor; Bob Taylor; Bully Taylor
- Important places
- Canyon Gap
- Important events
- The stage is held up.; The stage is held up again.; A jail break at Canyon Gap.; The hanging party continues.
- First words
- They were hanging Leo Carver on Tuesday afternoon, and the loafers were watching the gallows go up.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)From the kitchen they heard the rattle of dishes and the smell of bacon frying, and Rolly was pouring the coffee.
- Disambiguation notice
- The above names and events are from the collector's edition.
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Statistics
- Members
- 154
- Popularity
- 212,162
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.68)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 9
- ASINs
- 2
