Classic Westerns

I'm reading The Sacketts by Louis L'Amour, who was born in North Dakota and lived there as a young man - much during the same time as my mother-in-law. It turns out that L'Amour's real name was LaMoure. From what I know of pioneer North Dakotans, it surprises me that he would change his name to such a Frenchified version. Did a publisher or editor talk him into it? Doubtless it has lent him a certain cachet, but still...

It's kind of fun to read a classic Western where the men are strong, good and evil are in black and white, and it's all fairly predictable. I feel transported back to being 11 years old and finding my aunts' stash of girls books from the 20s and 30s. There's nothing like discovering Nancy Drew as a kid and whiling away whole summer days with her.



Another one of my favorites from those books was Nell Grayson's Ranching Days by May Hollis Barton, who was one of many pseudonyms for Harriet Stratemeyer Adams. Harriet wrote many Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Bobbsey Twins books, and more! (Must look into this.) Nell is down in my basement bookshelf growing moldly along with the others, but I can't bear to part with her yet. Nell was a city girl from the East (dudette) who met her match in a strong young cowboy who took a liking to her. Nell had adventures with rattlesnakes, storms and "bad guys," but always was a match for them. Lovely simpler times.