Chancy [Mass Market Paperback]

Louis L'Amour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1981

He was an orphan from the hills of Tennessee and he hadn’t eaten in three days. With the front of his stomach making friends with the back, he was in no position to let an opportunity slip by unnoticed. And when Chancy defended his new herd of cattle with a shotgun, he didn’t miss. The dead man left a pistol on the ground. Chancy needed a spare and, after stowing it in his bedroll, forgot about it. He had a cattle drive to finish and a profit to make.

But the gun had a history. Another killing had taken place and Chancy would never know the truth until it was too late. Now, locked in a jail cell with an angry, drunken mob outside and time running out, he must somehow find a way to prove his innocence.

--This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Inside Flap

Cattle drive in a deadly country...

Poor, orphaned at thirteen, Otis Chancy left the Tennessee mountains with nothing but a will to work, a drive to succeed, and the backbone for a fight. So when a fight comes his way, along with a chance to buy a herd of cattle and start his own spread, nineteen-year-old Chancy doesn't hesitate. He guns down a man who'd been using a sheriff's badge to justify cattle thieving. But when a mysterious woman betrays him, he will find himself stalked by a deadly gunman. Despite his youth, Chancy won't run--and when his past catches up to him in Cheyenne, he'll make his stand, whether his partner and cowhands back his play...or whether he fights alone. --This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.

About the Author

Louis L’Amour is undoubtedly the bestselling frontier novelist of all time. He is the only author in history to receive both the Presidential Medal of Freedom, and the Congressional Gold Medal in honor of his life's work. He has published ninety novels; twenty-seven short-story collections; two works of nonfiction; a memoir, Education of a Wandering Man; and a volume of poetry, Smoke from This Altar. There are more than 300 million copies of his books in print worldwide. --This text refers to an alternate Mass Market Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback
• Publisher: Bantam Books (November 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553232630
• ISBN-13: 978-0553232639
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 0.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 3.2 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,748,295 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

"I think of myself in the oral tradition--as a troubadour, a village tale-teller, the man in the shadows of a campfire. That's the way I'd like to be remembered--as a storyteller. A good storyteller."

It is doubtful that any author could be as at home in the world re-created in his novels as Louis Dearborn L'Amour. Not only could he physically fill the boots of the rugged characters he wrote about, but he literally "walked the land my characters walk." His personal experiences as well as his lifelong devotion to historical research combined to give Mr. L'Amour the unique knowledge and understanding of people, events, and the challenge of the American frontier that became the hallmarks of his popularity.

Of French-Irish descent, Mr. L'Amour could trace his own in North America back to the early 1600s and follow their steady progression westward, "always on the frontier." As a boy growing up in Jamestown, North Dakota, he absorbed all he could about his family's frontier heritage, including the story of his great-grandfather who was scalped by Sioux warriors.

Spurred by an eager curiosity and desire to broaden his horizons, Mr. L'Amour left home at the age of fifteen and enjoyed a wide variety of jobs, including seaman, lumberjack, elephant handler, skinner of dead cattle, and miner, and was an officer in the transportation corps during World War II. During his "yondering" days he also circled the world on a freighter, sailed a dhow on the Red Sea, was shipwrecked in the West Indies and stranded in the Mojave Desert. He won fifty-one of fifty-nine fights as a professional boxer and worked as a journalist and lecturer. He was a voracious reader and collector of rare books. His personal library contained 17,000 volumes.

Mr. L'Amour "wanted to write almost from the time I could talk." After developing a widespread following for his many frontiers and adventure stories written for fiction magazines, Mr. L'Amour published his first full length novel, Hondo, in the United States in 1953. Every one of his more than 120 books is in print; there are more than 300 million copies of his books in print worldwide, making him one of the bestselling authors in modern literary history. His books have been translated into twenty languages, and more than forty-five of his novels and stories have been made into feature films and television movies.

The recipient of many great honor and awards, in 1983 Mr. L'Amour became the first novelist to ever to be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal by the United States Congress in honor of his life's work. In 1984 he was also awarded the Medal of Freedom by President Reagan.

Louis L'Amour died on June 10, 1988. His wife, Kathy, and their two children, Beau and Angelique, carry the L'Amour publishing tradition forward with new books written by the author during his lifetime to be published by Bantam.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Just try and put this book down, I dare you., December 16, 2005

By 

Mid-Prairie Teen - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chancy: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

This is the story of a boy who was condemned with out a chance as a child that progresses into the inspirational tale of a man searching for a future, but being haunted by his past. After a widowed father was hanged for a crime he didn't commit his only son Otis Tom Chancy a strong-willed boy and a loyal son is forced to leave the small Tennessee leaving behind him a ramshackle cabin, the only man who believed in him, and carrying the title of a horse thief's son. As chancy rides west across the plains he obtains experience in being a cowhand and wielding a gun. Along the way he meets up with a cattle outfit near desperation, a rowdy gang of outlaws, and a wealthy rancher looking for a business partner. But the plot thickens when he meets up with his past in a small western town and this time, he's not going anywhere.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Chancy by Louis L'amour, May 21, 2002

A Kid's Review

This review is from: Chancy (School & Library Binding)

I really like this book. Louis Lamour is my favorite author. This is my favorite book by him. I read it last year as a freshman for Accelerated Reader. This is a western story as most of Louis Lamours books are. In this book Otis Chancy is the main character. He starts off with absolutely nothing. Doing anything he can to earn a dollar hear or a buck there. He goes on fighting Indians, crooked sheriffs, and deadly gunmen. He ends up getting a hold of some property and a few head of cattle. With some people helping him out around the ranch, he ends up making a life for himself. This is my favorite book because its western, it has fighting in it and I like Louis Lamour as an author. If you are interested in any of these things then I recommend this book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best of Louis L'Amour's western books, September 28, 2008

By 

Latour07 (Paris, France) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chancy: A Novel (Mass Market Paperback)

I read several times all the books writtent by Louis L'Amour of French-Irish descent. I like the man. What an extraordinary adventurer. Boxer, cowboy, officer of a tank during the second world war, he was a real westerner. I represent myself the American man of the Frontier as Louis L'Amour who loved giving birth to strong characters as Ottis Chancy.

Be ready to be surprised by the quality of the story, the sense of action, the humourous passion of the West. Louis L'Amour, you still are a great author.