Where the long grass blows [Unknown Binding]

Louis L'Amour (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: 1978

Bill Canavan rode into the valley with a dream to start his own ranch. But when he managed to stake claims on the three best water holes, the other ranchers turned against him.

No one is more determined to see Canavan dead than Star Levitt. Levitt is an unscrupulous businessman who has been accumulating cattle at an alarming rate. Suspicious after witnessing a secret meeting between the riders of warring ranches, Bill begins noticing other dubious behavior: Why is Levitt’s fiancée, Dixie Venable, acting more like a hostage than a willing bride-to-be?

Canavan doesn’t have much time to figure out what’s going on. The entire valley is against him, and everyone is ready to shoot on sight.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Canavan drifted down the valley and into a shooting war. The big ranchers were rustlers turned repectable. Now they were fighting with each other. In the middle was a small spread and a woman. Canavan had a mind to stay so he staked a claim. And when the gun hands were gone he'd have everything he wanted--the land, the water. . .and the woman. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Inside Flap

Canavan drifted down the valley and into a  shooting war. The big ranchers were rustlers turned  repectable. Now they were fighting with each other.  In the middle was a small spread and a woman.  Canavan had a mind to stay so he staked a claim. And  when the gun hands were gone he'd have everything  he wanted--the land, the water. . .and the woman. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Unknown Binding: 312 pages
• Publisher: G. K. Hall (1978)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0816165440
• ISBN-13: 978-0816165445
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,177,932 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 FROM PULP MAGAZINE WESTERN TO A LATER NOVEL, March 4, 2009

By 

Kay's Husband (Virginia, U.S.A.) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Where the Long Grass Blows (Paperback)

This 1976 western from Louis L'Amour started its life in a September, 1949, pulp magazine and was later expanded and changed somewhat into novel form. The author name used for the pulp story was 'Jim Mayo', a name Louis used long before he began using his real name.

The original story was set in Nevada where the Ruby Hills are located, they soar upwards of 11,000 feet. This was an area of active mining and cattle ranching. With this setting in mind, Louis L'Amour wrote his 1949 pulp story for WEST magazine, giving the name of Ross Haney to his main character. Ross Haney later became the Bill Canavan of the novel. The plot has to do with land settlement and development, especially with Bill Carnavan having the desire to have a ranch of his own. When he stakes claims to do so several ranchers turn against him. In spite of changing Levitt's fiance's name from Sherry Vernon to Dixie Venable in this longer version, both stories still remain pretty much the same.

Readers wishing to read the complete, original story may still do so in Louis' book entitled THE RIDER OF THE RUBY HILLS, a book containing four magazine articles all of which later were reworked into full blown novels.

This novel, WHERE THE LONG GRASS BLOWS reads much better than the magazine story as a more skilled Louis L'Amour did the writing and the story is more fleshed out than the earlier 1949 pulp magazine story. For true L'Amour fans reading both will be very instructive.

Semper Fi.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars enjoyable Western shoot 'em up book -, March 11, 2006

By 

A. Woodley "Patroness, Janeites, the Austen list" (New Zealand) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where the Long Grass Blows (Paperback)

Quite enjoyed this one, the cards were on the table almost right from the start. Bill Canavan rides into town, on the way he meets the feisty girl he wants to marry - and races her and her horse Flame, Winning as well.

She is daughter of one of the clans who are controlling things thereabouts. The other clan is headed by Reynolds, a man with a very unsavoury past which Canavan knows well enough - and when challenged lets everyone else know about it as well.

Canavan, however, knows sometihng none of them know - he has staked out or bought all the water rights thereabbouts - and there is going to be big trouble brewing - Canavan is the man to handle it though.

Wry humour, tough action and some good western reading. L'amour does a rollicking good yarn.

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good L'Amour example., September 9, 2004

By 

E. S Winskill (Tacoma, WA USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Where the Long Grass Blows (Paperback)

No one's reviewed this, and probably no one will see this review! As much as any thing, this is probably a result of L'Amour's amazing productivity.

I came late to the Western genre somewhat by accident, at age 56. I think I have a detached view. I started with L'Amour, as perhaps most neophytes do, because he has so many titles out there and everyone has heard of him. His stories are good, as is this one; a tale of a man who comes to the lawless valley with a mission to establish himself and confound the villains while doing so. It has a couple of clear flaws, though, the main one being a seemingly tacked-on late bit about a smuggling operation. But it's sound, and of course the protagonist succeeds. L'Amour has good detail and atmosphere. He tends to have sentimental passages about the west, manhood, morality, etc. here and in all his books. Not that the subjects are at all questionable, but they tend to be in didactic passages in the protagonist's thoughts rather than arising from the art of the story itself.

L'Amour is a good starting point in the genre. He is a solid 3 to 3 1/2 star writer. This is praise, not condemnation. But there are many better Western writers to go for, while time's a wastin', Elmore Leonard for just one.