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Forum nameLouis L'Amour Discussion Forum
Topic subjectRE: Time Periods of Novels
Topic URLhttp://louislamour.com/dcforum/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=221&topic_id=671&mesg_id=673
673, RE: Time Periods of Novels
Posted by john555, Sat May-02-20 12:23 PM
I did that myself. Mainly because it just gave me a reason to read them all again. I found there were different things that gave an indication of the date. And, nearly all of them have something in them to indicate a date or where they fit. In "Sackett's Land", Barnabas tells the reader in chapter 1 that the year is 1599. In "Ride the River", LL tells the reader that James White, the shyster lawyer had an annual income that was a good income for 1840. LL sprinkled these things throughout the books. The one book that I found most difficult to peg was "Mustang Man". The commonly used order for "Mustang Man" seems to be after "Mojave Crossing" and "The Sackett Brand". I think the natural order for "Mustang Man" is actually before "Sackett" for two reasons. In Chapter 15 of "Mustang Man", Nolan has a conversation with Ollie Shaddock in which Ollie mentions Tyrel and Orrin. Nolan responds that he does not know them but has heard of them. Tye, Orrin, and Nolan all came together at the final shootout in "Sackett's Brand". So "Mustang Man" has to be before that. And Nolan does not mention knowing Tell which would be odd unless the book is before "Mojave Crossing". And, the reason I would place it before "Sackett" is because in chapter 14, Nolan negotiates a horse swap where he tells the camp riders he is headed for Mora to visit relatives. The riders say they have heard of the Sacketts of Mora but do not refer to Tye as the Mora gunfighter. He became known as the Mora gunfighter because of his shootout with Tom Sunday at the end of "The Daybreakers" in 1872. But here's another of what I consider good questions. What makes a book a Sackett book? LL wrote in "The Sackett Companion" about a separate series for Talons and one for Chantrys. But the many interactions with the Sacketts make that virtually impossible. So, then you can add them to the chronological order for an even more interesting list. I know some of this is just conjecture but most of it is how LL wrote it.