I think L’amour may be making a comeback. Costco is selling 7 of his books on tape, and the naration and voices are by Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Waylin Jennings and Kris Kristoferson. I bought it and it’s pretty darned entertaining.
Back in L’Amour’s day, prize fighting was what football is today. The funny thing is, when “good men” fight each other in his stories, they shake hands afterwards and become friends, even when the fight was about one rancher trying to “steal” chunks of his neighbor’s land.
I purchased his entire collection in hardback at an estate sale a few weeks ago. Roughly a hundred books, including his “crime stories” compilations. Some of the books are over-simplistic, but they are a lot of fun and he really does paint pictures well, as a man who loved the desert.
I also have his autobiography. And many of his books on tape include 10 minutes or more of him describing the real old west, the 2,000 plus gunfighters he cataloged and the actual characters from that time he ran across in his travels. Interestingly, there is no sex in his books because he considered it irrelevant to the great things the men and women of that day were accomplishing.