Louis L'Amour - his autobiography/memoirs

A little while ago I read Lonesome Gods by Louis L'Amour.  I liked the book somewhat, but when I got to the end of it, they had this blurb that all this crazy nutso adventure stuff was his actual life!  

I was more intrigued with this piece of information than I had been with the entire book.

I wondered if there was a biography on him to tell more of his crazy adventures, and by golly, by gee, there was.

Woo!

So, I found this book called The Education of a Wandering Man .  It is his memoirs and it is crazy.  This guy's life is more fiction than fiction is.

So he begins by telling of his love for reading and saying he got his education from reading books, not through the traditional way.  He has this list of books he ticks off that he read and they are about one million zillion volumes long.  He also was a world traveller.  He started off one of his first jobs as a man on a boat, working and doing whatever the people told him to.  He went all over the world this way.  When he arrived back in the United States, he would pick up odd jobs by hopping trains and living in different places and states looking for work.  After he would save some money, he'd get on the next train and go find something else to do.

At one point he decided to be a caretaker of a mine.  It was out in the middle of nowhere, just past Death Valley.  It was about 70 miles to the next town and he got dropped off by an old man.  He said he was lonely.  Super lonely.  So he read some more books.  He wanted to write and to learn, so he was glad for the time to think, but he was still lonely for a kind of companion with whom he might be able to discuss life and literature.

As he was finishing up his job at this mine, he was instructed to get into a Model T and drive back into town.  He started her up and all was well...until about three seconds later when he ran over a huge rock and it broke the axle.

He had to WALK THROUGH DEATH VALLEY to get back to town.  He carried a can of pears and threw sand at rattlesnakes.  He had a four inch scorpion in his boots one morning.  He made it through alive to the town by some miracle after several days (he tells the story in detail in the book).  

This is where I've left off.  This guy was a man's man.  If  you want an adventure of your life while sitting in the safety of your own living room, pick this one up and shake your head in disbelief.  It's more amazing than fiction.

Keep on reading!
Ms. Daisy