This will be a little self-indulgent, but given my recent hospital stint with covid pneumonia. I'm feeling sad, relieved, overwhelmed with nostalgia and, above all, gratitude for still being here.Conversation with my dad this morning, who I'm grateful is still doing well at 87, we were reminiscing about our time living in Washington State. This is in the late '70s to the early '80s. And this was the time when I discovered Louis L'Amour. It was I happenstance, traveling to a local book / card shop that had a long wall of paper backs. Nothing like now. Those days were glorious with their wealth of reading copies available in stores like this.
In my browsing through books I would see the Western section which occupied a huge portion of the wall probably floor to ceiling and at least 5 ft across. Well over 60% of the books on that wall were LL books. I was always intrigued by who this guy was, and by the colorful and beautiful artwork. When I finally broke down and bought SILVER CANYON, put that magnificent painting by James Obama on the cover, I was hooked. I didn't realize it until later that silver canyon was more of a pot boiler pulp story compared to some of the books to come later, but I was hook regardless. That Christmas was a gold mine for me as I was gifted with LL books galore. A shoebox filled with over a dozen brand new glistening paperbacks, and if I recall, trade paperbacks of a newly reissued Sitka and the Comstock Load. I remember seeing the hardcover edition of the Comstock Load, and the Cherokee Trail in the local store but I never got around to getting them. They become such rarities in any sort of condition it took me decades to secure copies. But I have them and they are treasures to me now. I live for the new books, and would frequent Kmart and was thrilled to see something new show up in the new book / bestseller section by LL. A favorite in that era was Milo Talon, which remains one of my favorites.
Over the years my love and passion for these books has remained. Is something I treasure especially now, as I come through a very scary moment in my life and sit here evaluating what the future holds and where I will be going next.
So Beau, I just wanted to say thank you in particular as interacting on this forum occasionally with you has been a real privilege for me, given my lifelong love affair with the works of your Dad. You've always taken the time to respond in far more detail and such that I certainly would have any expectation that you would do. And I've enjoyed every one of them very much.
Happy belated Thanksgiving to you and yours.