Louis is so much more than a great storyteller (a memorial he writes for himself). He not only Tells the story, he somehow in his imagination, transports himself Into the scene as he writes it! He writes as if he actually was there in the experience! His scenes explode in the reader’s imagination via what Louis sees, smells, hears, senses, and feels by him actually being there in his imagination. So the reader, uniquely to Louis L’Amour, gets the sense he/she is actually in the scene too, watching, feeling.

McMurtry might have done this with Lonesome Dove. Zane Grey with the horse chase in ‘Riders’. Kelton with his Hewey Calloway stories. But none with the non-stop consistency of Louis L’Amour. His short story “Lonigan” being a wonderful example.