The greatest writer
Louis L’Amour (1908–1988) was a prolific American novelist and short story writer, widely regarded as the most successful author of Western fiction in history.
I have been sitting and thinking about all the books i have read, i never realized how long i have been reading, my mother used to read a lot there was always books laying around as a child and always burnt food because the book was a “one more page” type of book. She never encouraged me to read and my dad never read at all. Come to think about it, I wonder if he could read. He was more a drinker type man, he was good at that, so how i started i do not know.
I remember I was sick with mumps and had a book from the library, a really thick hardcover, “jock of the bushveld” by “Percy Fitzpatrick” and i started to read and read and read. I finished the book in three days, keep in mind i was about 12 and i recall finishing it and closing the back cover and sitting stunned that i had completed the whole book. That moment set off a change in my life and I had moved on from picture books to serious reading, as far as i was concerned i was an adult.
I soon read all the “secret seven” books by “Enid Blyton” but soon they seemed to me more a children’s genre, so I progressed to adult books. At this time i was about 14 and rebelling against school, i hated school. The man next door, he was also a drunk but he did read and all he read was “Louis L’Amour” as far as I can remember. I stole a one day from him, he was passed out, that book changed my life, soon i was on my bicycle peddling around Durban, John Milne book shop on the beach, a shop in St Georges street, another on Berea road and my collection of “Louis L’Amour” books was started, I had shelves of them and they were my pride and joy. I would lay reading until the sun came up and then refuse to go to school, in reality “Louis L’Amour” was the reason I think most that caused me not to finish school.
After the “Louis L’Amour” period the “James Hadley Chase” era started and simultaneously the “Edge” series” by “George G. Gilman” I think i read all the “Edge” books and a lot of “Chase” after that period in my life i left school and started drinking to much, my need for books was always there but i never read as much. Later on after spending a period in hospital and realizing it was time to grow up i managed to kick the alcohol and dope issues, my savior was books and i have read books from “Friedrich Nietzsche” and “Tolstoy”, “Dickens” and “John Steinbeck,” it has been a wild journey through pages.
In school we had an Afrikaans teacher “Mrs Theunhiusen” who read a chapter out of a book in Afrikaans every week, this was the reason i went to school on that day. I would sit and listen for 30mins in another world, a world of peace. The book “District Six” I never found, I looked and my memory fails to remember the story. I don’t know who wrote it but it is something I have never forgotten and I have a vivid picture of “Mrs Theunhiusen” walking down the isles reading.
The books embedded into my memory most is “Louis L’Amour” and one day i wish i could once again start a collection, books from bookshops, all second hands, all eared, marked and well read, keep them in a private room for my own sanity, a monument to a man thousands of miles away writing about people thousands of miles away who i will never see feel or hear, but who changed my life with his imagination, a man who passed though my life like a ghost and altered my direction and fate.
The strange part of all this is, no one even knows i read books, no one has ever seen me read besides one or two people, no one knows of the Saturday’s I peddled all over Durban looking for books on a bicycle.
What has all this reading done for me ? I don’t know, nothing really, then again most drugs never do any person good.
RIP …….. Louis L’Amour (1908–1988) was a prolific American novelist and short story writer, widely regarded as the most successful author of Western fiction in history. Known for his meticulous research and geographic accuracy, he published over 100 works that remain in print as of 2026, selling more than 320 million copies worldwide
