The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour: Unabridged Selections from the Adventure Stories: Volume 4 [Abridged, Audiobook] [Audio CD]

Louis L'Amour (Author), Jason Culp (Reader)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 7, 2006 | Series: Louis L'Amour (Book 4)

Louis L’Amour’s tales of adventure cannot be surpassed for sheer storytelling excitement, and they stand as a testament to his legendary appeal. Here are timeless stories of danger and daring, wanderlust and heroism, filled with ordinary men and women facing often insurmountable challenges with courage, dignity, honor–and heart.
Perhaps never before has a single volume contained so many breathtaking thrills. These adrenaline-laced tales of mystery, suspense, murder, and survival never let up and will keep your heart pounding long after the last word.
From those numbering a few intense minutes to novella-length works, the tales in this action-packed anthology bear all the trademarks of the master’s touch–the historical accuracy, memorable characters, and timeless themes that have earned Louis L’Amour his unique place among American writers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

The fourth volume of the late L'Amour's short stories takes the author out of his familiar American frontier setting and into desolate and dangerous locales around the world, from "a narrow fjord at the end of the earth" on the southern coast of Chile to a "lonely isolated spot in the Coral Sea." While the characters are not traditional L'Amour, as "men of quick wit and valor" they share similar characteristics and values; freighter captain Ponga Jim Mayo, who plies the treacherous waters of the Indian Ocean during World War II (and is featured in nine of these 45 stories), succinctly sums up their worldview: "I'll make my own rules and abide by the consequences." The stories reflect the author's own youthful wanderings—as seaman, soldier and professional boxer—and, having been mostly written for pulp adventure magazines, are predictably formulaic. L'Amour's first publication, "Death Westbound," a Depression-era hobo story, crackles with his trademark prose: "Sometimes the shacks were pretty good guys, but a railroad dick is always a louie." No L'Amour fan will want to miss this collection. Afterword by L'Amour's son, Beau L'Amour. (Nov. 7)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

L'Amour was known primarily as a churner-outer of westerns, but one of his most popular and enduring characters is Ponga Jim Mayo, the rough-and-ready, Nazi-baiting East Indies freighter captain who speaks with his right fist and punctuates with his left. The nine Ponga Jim stories form the cornerstone of this fourth volume of L'Amour short fiction. Dubbed The Adventure Stories--accurate up to a point but really just another way of saying nonwesterns--these tales showcase L'Amour's gift for compact, straightforward storytelling outside of the confines of his usual genre. Ranging from tales of train-hopping hobos to Himalayan tribes fighting to keep their distance from the modern world, the stories usually feature a tough hero shrugging off all odds for survival against hellish elements and zero-dimensional villains. The action is fast, hard-hitting, and a ton of fun. Every campfire should come with its own built-in Louis L'Amour to regale away the hours. Failing that, this volume adds a necessary touch of breadth to an already essential collection. Ian Chipman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Publisher: Random House Audio; Abridged edition (November 7, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0739340115
• ISBN-13: 978-0739340110
• Product Dimensions: 5.1 x 0.6 x 5.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,661,689 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

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars More than just stories - A lifetime of ADVENTURE!, October 31, 2006

By 

Louis Lamour fan "Louis Lamour fan" (Washington) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour, Volume 4: The Adventure Stories (Hardcover)

There is more to this book than just the old pulp fiction. It has interesting stories about Louis own life and adventures. While the adventure stories are action packed and thrilling there are also several higher quality tales where the writing is at least as good a Louis' novels if not occasionally better! There are also many poignant stories about Louis' personal life and the world he experienced as a young man traveling the globe. Much of the book follows Louis' early travels to places like China, Japan, Indonesia, and Europe.

There is also a web site just about this book (LouisLAmourGreatAdventure) which offers loads of additional materials including maps, film and sound clips, detailed mock ups of ships and airplanes etc, all related to the stories, adventures and life of my favorite author!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting collection of short stories, May 7, 2007

By 

William Atlee - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour, Volume 4: The Adventure Stories (Hardcover)

I bought this to take on vacation, although it is rather heavey to carry through airports. I have only read the first few stories, however they are filled with drama and intrigue that take you to strange lands. So far they are filled with adventure and I look forward to spending more time with these stories. I would guess that Louis L'Amour westerns would be equally exciting.

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars THE BEST NON WESTERN STORIES HE WROTE, September 18, 2007

By 

David E. Taeusch "__a1_frogprince37133_" (Murfreesboro, TN United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Collected Short Stories of Louis L'Amour, Volume 4: The Adventure Stories (Hardcover)

The stories are all page turners. i read the book in one sitting. the stories are .... Death Westbound * Old Doc Yak * It's Your Move * And Proudly Die * Survival * Show Me The Way To Go Home * Thicker Than Blood * The Admiral * Shanghai, Not Without Gestures * The Man Who Stole Shakespeare * The Dancing Kate * Off the Mangrove Coast * Glorious Glorious! * By The Ruins of El Walarieh * Where There's Fighting * The Cross and the Candle * A Friend of the General * Author's Tea * East of Gorontalo * On the Road to Amurang * From Here to Banggai * The House of Qasavara * Well of the Unholy Light * West from Singapore * South of Suez * Voyage to Toblai * Wings Over Brazil * Pirates of the Sky * Flight to the North * Coast Patrol * Wings Over Khabarovsk * Flight to Enbetu * Mission to Siberut * Down Paagumene Way * The Goose Flies South * Tailwind to Tibet * Pirates With Wings * Night Over the Solomons * Where There's Fighting * Beyond the Great Snow Mountains * May There Be A Road * By the Waters of San Tadeo * Meeting at Falmouth * Crash Landing * With These Hands * The Diamond of Jeru *