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Congressional Gold Medal.com |
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Congressional Gold Medal
Recipient Louis L'Amour
ne day I was speeding along at the typewriter, and my daughter - who was a child at the time - asked me, "Daddy, why are you writing so fast?" And I replied, "Because I want to see how the story turns out!"
. . . Louis L'Amour
Louis L'Amour
At the typewriter, Los Angeles apartment, 1953. On September 24, 1983 at the White House President Ronald Reagan presented Louis L'Amour with the
Congressional Gold Medal. Louis was the first American novelist to receive the medal. At the time he received the award, Louis had written 87 books and his sales had totaled 190 million. Louis Dearborn L'Amour was born on March 22, 1908. His mother had a fondness for reading, writing, and storytelling and passed those loves onto her son. Louis grew up in Jamestown, North Dakota where he heard tales about Cowboys and Indians, the Civil War, and the pioneers who settled America. At the age of fifteen, in 1923, Louis dropped out of school going to West Texas as a hired hand after being a circus roustabout. Other odd jobs followed from being a hay cutter and baler to being a logger. From the age of fifteen to eighteen Louis Louis lead the life of a drifter living a tough life. At the age of nineteen he became a boxer earning good money. He continued reading books including non-fiction books making up for the education he didn't get. By 1926 he had shipped out on a freighter bound for the Far East as a ship's mate. By the time he was thirty-year-old he had sailed throughout the world. In 1939 he returned to Oklahoma City to live with his parents and began pounding out stories and poems on an old, beat-up Underwood manual typewriter. His first sale was for $6.50 to the pulp magazine True Gang Life. Soon he was selling stories regularly for good money. He was drafted into the United States Army in 1942, a good soldier who was honorably discharged in 1946. In New York City in 1946 Louis met Leo Margulies, the editor of Thrilling Stories, who suggested that Louis write some Western stories. Which he did even getting published in Colliers. In 1946 Louis moved to Los Angeles where he continued writing westerns, mysteries, and Hopalong Cassidy stories. In 1953 Hondo was published by Fawcett Books with John Wayne movie released on November 25, 1953. On the basis of Hondo, Louis was signed to a one-book-a-year contract with Fawcett. In 1955 he signed a two-books-a-year contract with Bantam Books which meant that he had to produce at least three books a year. On February 19, 1956 he got married at the age of forty-eight and would go on to be the father of two children. Between 1956 and 1960 he published eleven novels and had six films made from his novels. He wrote his first Sackett novel in 1960 and did a novelization of the 1962 movie How the West Was Won. In the 1970s Louis began receiving various honors for his body of work, not bad for a high-school dropout! In the 1980s his books were on the bestseller lists and Louis L'Amour had become an American icon. On Friday, June 10, 1988 Louis L'Amour died at home of lung cancer. At the time of his death in 1988, he had over 190,000,000 books in print and had been read worldwide. The man who would become Louis L'Amour grew up in the fading days of the American frontier. He was born Louis Dearborn LaMoore on March 22, 1908, the last of seven children in the family of Dr. Louis Charles LaMoore and Emily Dearborn LaMoore. His home, for the first fifteen years of his life, was Jamestown, North Dakota, a medium sized farming community situated in the valley where Pipestem Creek flows into the James River. Doctor LaMoore was a large animal veterinarian who came to Dakota Territory in 1882. As times changed he also sold farm machinery, bossed harvesting crews, and held several positions in city and state government. Fred Waring born Frederic Malcolm Waring
b. Tyrone, Blair, Pennsylvania, 9 June 1900
d. Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Centre, Pennsylvania, 29 July 1984 Joe Louis born Joseph Louis Barrow
b. Lexington, Lauderdale, Alabama, 13 May 1914
d. Las Vegas, Clark, Nevada, 12 April 1981 Louis L'Amour born Louis Dearborn Lamoore
b. Jamestown, Stutsman, North Dakota, 22 March 1908
d. Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, 10 June 1988
Thursday, 26 August 1982
An Act To award special congressional gold medals to Fred Waring, the widow of Joe Louis, and Louis L'Amour. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That (a) the President of the United States is authorized to present, on behalf of Congress, a gold medal of appropriate design to Fred Waring in recognition of his contribution to enriching American life. For such purpose, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to cause to be struck a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury. There is authorized to be appropriated not to exceed $20,000 after October 1, 1981, to carry out the provisions of this subsection. (b) The Secretary of the Treasury may cause duplicates in bronze of such medal to be coined and sold under such regulations as he may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, overhead expenses, and the gold medal. The appropriation made to carry out the provisions of subsection (a) shall be reimbursed out of the proceeds of such sales. (c) The medals provided for in this section are national medals for the purpose of section 3551 of the Revised Statutes (31 U.S.C. 368). SEC. 2. (a) The President of the United States is authorized to present, on behalf of the Congress, a gold medal of appropriate design to Mrs. Joe Louis in recognition of her late husband's accomplishments which did so much to bolster the spirit of the American people during one of the most crucial times in American history and which have endured throughout the years as a symbol of strength for the Nation. For such purpose, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to cause to be struck a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury. There is authorized to be appropriated not to exceed $20,000 after October 1, 1981, to carry out the provisions of this subsection. (b) The Secretary of the Treasury may cause duplicates in bronze of such medal to be coined and sold under such regulations as he may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, overhead expenses, and the gold medal. The appropriation made to carry out the provisions of subsection (a) shall be reimbursed out of the proceeds of such sales. (c) The medals provided for in this section are national medals for the purpose of section 3551 of the Revised Statutes (31 U.S.C. 368). SEC. 3. (a) The President of the United States is authorized to present, on behalf of the Congress, a gold medal of appropriate design to Louis L'Amour in recognition of his distinguished career as an author and his contributions to the Nation through his historically based works. For such purpose, the Secretary of the Treasury is authorized and directed to cause to be struck a gold medal with suitable emblems, devices, and inscriptions to be determined by the Secretary of the Treasury. There is authorized to be appropriated not to exceed $20,000 after October 1, 1981, to carry out the provisions of this subsection. (b) The Secretary of the Treasury may cause duplicates in bronze of such medal to be coined and sold under such regulations as he may prescribe, at a price sufficient to cover the cost thereof, including labor, materials, dies, use of machinery, overhead expenses, and the gold medal. The appropriation made to carry out the provisions of subsection (a) shall be reimbursed out of the proceeds of such sales. (c) The medals provided for in this section are national medals for the purpose of section 3551 of the Revised Statutes (31 U.S.C. 368). 96 Stat. 315-316
For more information about the life and works of Louis L'Amour visit his official website.
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