New Wall of Names poll today

There's a new Louis L'Amour Wall of Names poll up today. I've decided to make it a Monday through Friday thing, but also sticking to one poll per day. Today's poll is on names from "The Drift," a story from L'Amour's The Outlaws of Mesquite, which I reviewed back in July.

My prediction is Smoke Lamson will win in an Obama-like landslide.

Everyone's a Critic

Another left field comedic gem from Andy Samberg and company. Like Ras Trent from a few weeks ago, when I saw this last night I wasn't sure how much I liked it. I realized I actually liked it a lot when I couldn't stop thinking about it today. Super weird stuff, but strangely affecting.



Would this be called surrealism?

That Man from the Bitter Sands

Here is another "That" story, joining the esteemed ranks of "That Packsaddle Affair" and a couple of others I've yet to review. Click on the link in the previous sentence if you want to know why I consider this so interesting. Otherwise, read on a for a review of the best Louis L'Amour story I've read since "The Gravel Pit" from Beyond the Great Snow Mountains.

L'Amour starts this one right in the middle of the action and fills in the details as the story progresses. When the story begins, a man named Speke is "two days beyond death" as he crawls through the harsh Arizona desert, his face "long burned to a crimson brown" and his lips "rustl[ing] like tissue paper when they moved." Not a pretty picture. Luckily his mind is still intact, and what a mind it is. Like a latter day MacGyver, Speke has the power of invention. In other words, if you were one of two guys who had left him for dead after stealing his gold, you wouldn't want to leave him with anything at his disposal because chances are he's going to use it in some inspired way to keep himself alive--like, for instance, a prospector's gold pan and a canvas groundsheet. That's what Ross and Floren leave behind after robbing Speke and leaving him for dead--this after he had saved them when they stumbled into his camp, scorched and beaten by the desert climate, a few days earlier. So much for gratitude. Anyway, Speke is a wise man, knowledgable in the ways of survival, and that makes for an interesting first few pages. On death's doorstep himself, he manages to use his gold pan and groundsheet to create a makeshift dew trap, coaxing a few drops of water from his parched surroundings. Later, after finding a small pond that also unfortunately has a dead coyote in it, he manages to purify pans of water at a time by using charcoal from his fire to soak up the impurities. (He also boils it, which is what I would've done and probably left it at that--guess with a dead animal involved, purification needs to be a bit more thorough.) And for food, Speke takes advantage of nearby yucca plants, picking their long pods, eating one of them raw, then "roast[ing] the others with some bulbs of sego lily." I don't know about you, but I know what's for dinner tonight!

By the time he's made it through the desert, Speke is ready to get his gold back from Ross and Floren. At this point, my thinking was, "Okay, this is a revenge story." Not so. As L'Amour writes:

Floren and Ross had taken his gold and he had been abandoned to die, yet it was with no thought of actual revenge that he returned to the desert. Nor did he blame his sufferings upon the two thieves whom he had taken into his camp when they had been half dead from thirst. The sufferings he had endured he accepted, as he accepted so much else as a part of life in the desert, yet the gold they had taken was his, and he intended to get it back.

I wonder if the reason Speke wants his gold back is because his heart appears to be made of it. Seriously, this is one level-headed guy, and definitely a different kind of protagonist for L'Amour. It's rare when I find a character who's this on top of his game to be so compelling--usually, I just think it's boring. But the fact that L'Amour starts him off from a position of disadvantage was a wise move, I think. And the fact that he doesn't make it easy for Speke to get his gold back introduces a welcome wrinkle in the often predicable landscape of Louis L'Amour westerns. If you want to know if Speke finds Ross and Floren and gets his gold back, read "That Man from the Bitter Sands." You won't regret it.

Of note:

• This story was originally published as "Man from the Bitter Sands" in the September 1954 issue of Male, and later published as "Box Canyon Showdown" in the January 1958 issue of Men.

Rating: 4.5 spurs out of 5

Louis L'Amour: The Cassettes (Part 2)

1989 was apparently a very good year if you were collecting Louis L'Amour audio dramatizations on cassette. The four covers I'm going to post today are all from adaptations that came out that year, and my guess is there are a few more that I don't have.

First off is Unguarded Moment. This is the first one I ever listened to--my first exposure to L'Amour, actually--and it remains my favorite. I'll never forget...it was 1992: Bill Clinton was president, Pepsi turned the soft drink world upside down with its innovative clear soda, and a ragtag duo of pre-teen rappers captured our hearts and minds by wearing their clothes backwards and saying "Wiggidy-wiggidy-wack!" all the time.

Now that's a cover! I know you should never judge a book by one, but this one is like a window into the story itself--they go hand in hand. More than the other covers we've seen up to this point, this one actually tells part of the story--or, if you've never read it or heard the adaptation, gives you clues that make you interested enough to pick it up. The noir-esque font is a nice change of pace, too, and is a great choice for the kind of story "Unguarded Moment" is. This cover is hard to top.

Next up are a pair of Chick Bowdrie stories, "Too Tough to Brand" and "McNelly Knows a Ranger."


As usual, solid artwork. The edge for me, though, goes to "McNelly Knows a Ranger." More colors, more going on, and I really like the clouds and sky in the background.

Finally, there's "No Man's Man," which is a really nice cover.


Love the different shades of red and brown on this one. At least, I'm pretty sure red and brown. I'm color blind, so I have trouble putting names to hues at times. Anyway, this is great work. I suspect some of my readers will like this even more than "Unguarded Moment." Thoughts?

That takes us through the 1980s. Part 3, whenever I post it, will take us through the first half of the 1990s. Hope you're enjoying the scans!

Comment starter: Which cover is your favorite of the ones shown above?

Louis L'Amour Wall of Names 5-way tie!

In a development not so much surprising as it was "Um, what should I do?"-inducing, Thursday's poll for best name from Louis L'Amour's "The Ghost Maker" resulted in a 5-way tie. The lucky "winners" were: Yannell Stoper, Red Blade, Old John, Bent Wells, and Dick Graham.

Frankly, I'm a bit surprised that someone picked Old John. Not judging it, but it was definitely a dark horse (at best) in my view. Guess I got schooled, whoever-it-was-that-voted-for-Old-John style!

Anyway, the rules are that if there's a tie, my wife or I get to pick the winner. Jill's auxiliary vote went for Red Blade, and that's who I voted for to begin with, so we've got a winner!

The next poll will be up soon, and I'll keep it there for the entire weekend. Happy voting!

Louis L'Amour: The Cassettes (Part 1)

One of my favorite blogs, Fire Joe Morgan, announced today that they're calling it quits. In their words:

Perhaps the future holds another project for us on which to waste massive amounts of time. For now, we will leave the site and the archives up as a testament to the fact that if you work hard enough, and blow off enough social occasions, and stare at the internet enough, and get nerdy enough, and repeatedly ignore entreaties from your friends and loved ones to...get out of the house it's a beautiful day!, then you, too, can...have a blog.

I'll miss FJM, but the real reason I'm bringing it up is because this will probably be the NERDIEST post I've ever written, in that I'm going to be posting scans of Louis L'Amour audio dramatization cassette covers and talking about why I like them and why they're better than the current CD cover art. Yeah, not much else to say about that, other than, um, "NERD!!!"

But the truth is, I love these covers. The stories aren't bad either, and are actually what got me into Louis L'Amour in the first place. If you haven't listened to any yet, I highly recommend just about all of them.

Here's the cover of an adaptation of the Chick Bowdrie story "A Trail to the West."

Released in 1986, it's the earliest adaptation I have, and is the earliest I'm aware of. Its product code (small letters and numbers running from left to right along the spine) is BAP 009. I'm assuming BAP stands for "Bantam Audio Production." I'd be interested to know what came before this. I suppose it wouldn't have to have been L'Amour stories.

Next up is another Bowdrie story, "South of Deadwood." Like "A Trail to the West," the artwork is very (for lack of a better term) "bright." I really don't have much vocabulary for saying things about art, but I really like this one. The background is crisp and evokes the mood of the title perfectly.

Before I forget, I should say how much I like the fact that the font you commonly see on Louis L'Amour novels is extended to the audio cassettes shown here. As you'll see below, this wasn't a practice that was continued as compacts discs supplanted tapes in the late 1990s. I also like the "With a Special Introduction by Louis L'Amour" bit that spans the front cover of both of the cassettes shown above. In a word, everything about these covers just "works." I know, it's a weird thing to get excited about, but whatever.

Here's the cover for 1987's "Old Doc Yak/Thicker Than Blood."

Not much I can say other than this is great artwork. This one also has an introduction by Louis L'amour--an extensive one, at that--yet the means by which this is indicated is different than the previous two examples. I wonder if that's because the way they did it on "A Trail to the West" and "South of Deadwood" would've kind of gotten in the way for "Old Doc Yak/Thicker than Blood." I don't know. Anyway, this is one of a series of audio adaptations that are not full-cast reworkings of the original material. Rather, it's Richard Crenna reading the stories (though it isn't noted on the cover itself). Yes, Richard Crenna, the guy from Rambo. If you don't think that totally rules, I don't know what to say.

Moving on, we have "The Black Rock Coffin Makers" and "Showdown Trail," both of which are also from 1987.

Nice to see Mr. Crenna get some props around here. As usual, the artwork is awesome, more for "Showdown Trail" than "The Black Rock Coffin Makers," now that I'm looking closely. The guy on the cover of the latter looks like he might have had skin problems as an adolescent. Actually, they both look like they might have had issues. Anyway, I'm being petty. Nice covers, both of them.

Thanksgiving is only two weeks away. How appropriate, then, that the next cover I'm going to show you is from 1988's "The Turkeyfeather Riders"! Talk about kismet!


I'd say this one is up to the high standards set by the previous examples. To contrast, here's the cover Random House had on hand with when this story was transferred to compact disc in 2006. (Note: This is the same cover that was used for Random House's cassette version of "The Turkeyfeather Riders," published in 2004.)


Stylistically, I think the artwork is comparable, which is to say that there's similar levels of talent evident in both examples. But the absence of the rough-hewn, "Old West" font and the fact that it's replaced with such a ho-hum alternative makes the distinction clear to me: Namely, the cassette covers got it right.

Check back tomorrow for more cassette covers. I'm calling it a night for now.

Hail, Nesselrode!

The votes are in, and Nesselrode Clay is the newest addition to The Louis L'Amour Wall of Names. It would've happened sooner or later, seeing as Nesselrode Clay is actually a recurring character better known as The Cactus Kid. My choice was Red Herring, a sly piece of invention by L'Amour, but not the winner. My guess is that another "Red" might prevail in the current poll.

Speaking of polls, don't hesitate to vote, even if you haven't read the story, and even if you're only here to read my Ras Trent post. You don't have to be a member of the Blogger community to participate. Just click your favorite name, and that's it!

My vote was for Red Blade, though the other Red (Carver) and Bent Wells were tough competition. I love that L'Amour has two minor characters named Red in a story that isn't even 20 pages. And Bent Wells is an amazing achievement. It's too bad he gets only passing mention in "The Ghost Maker." If I wrote Westerns, I'd be hard-pressed to pass up Bent Wells as a pen name.

Today's poll ends tomorrow (Friday) at 2:00 pm PST.