Education of a Wandering Man
Louis L’Amour
I chose this book on the very strong recommendation of
a library patron and because our book club theme this month was “something to
do with education or school.” I’ve always enjoyed memoirs by writers so I was hopeful,
but I didn’t expect to enjoy it quite
as much as I have.
Like most writer’s writing their memoirs or a
collection of reminiscences, the anecdotes are fascinating – illuminating and
funny, often self-deprecating. I laughed frequently or nodded my head in
agreement many times. I also didn’t expect to share a world view quite so much
with someone who wrote westerns, as they are not something I’ve ever
particularly read, but I found his thoughtful ruminations very familiar.
“One thing has always been true: That book or
that person who can give me an idea or a new slant on an old idea is my friend.
And there have been many such.”
L’Amour left school when he was only fifteen and
traveled extensively around the U.S. doing whatever jobs he could put his hand
to and to other countries in the American Merchant Marine. Later he would see
some of the world as part of the U.S. Army Transportation Corps. He asked
questions and the world opened to him, further igniting his inquisitive nature.
He didn’t ask much of people monetarily, making his own way but two anecdotes
stuck with me.
He has a lot to say about migrant workers of the early
1900’s for he was one –
“Over the years the terms
applied to wanderers have been confused until all meaning has been lost. To
begin with, a bum was a local man who did not want to work. A tramp was a
wanderer of the same kind, but a hobo was a wandering worker and essential to
the nation’s economy.”
And having lived through the depression, he creates a
wonderful picture of that difficult era –
“The Depression brought a
different kind of drifter to the railroads and highways, and only one who
bridged that period can grasp the depth of the change. The Depression hoboes
had little of that carefree, cheerful attitude of the earlier hobo. They were
serious, often frightened men.”
His humble inquisitiveness, that led him to question
people everywhere he went and for people to open up to him, fueling his
questions further, is summed up here –
“Questions must be
formulated from knowledge and I knew too little for that. I was a young man in
a hurry, wanting to know all that had been thought, pondered, speculated upon.
“The world was out there,
a big wonderful, and exciting place of which I knew too little. In my reading I
was constantly coming upon the names of scholars, historians, or political
leaders of whom I knew nothing at all, though often enough there were names that
I remembered from Dinner-table talk at home. Reading Don Quixote was marvelous stuff, but I needed to know more about
Cervantes himself and the world in which he lived.”
“What had men thought?
What had men believed? How did they come by those thoughts and beliefs? How had
men learned to govern themselves? Were the processes the same everywhere?”
I had an advisor who once told me, take what classes
you want, to give you a rounded view. What you need to know for your job,
you’ll learn on the job. I’ve found that to be true, and heard it echoed here.
“As can be guessed from
the title, this book is about education, but not education in the accepted
sense. No man or woman has a greater appreciation for schools than I, although
few have spent less time in them. No matter how much I admire our schools, I
know that no university exists that can provide an education; what a university
can provide is an outline, to give the learner a direction and guidance. The
rest one has to do for oneself.”
“No one can ‘get’ an education, for of
necessity education is a continuing process. If it does nothing else, it should
provide students with the tools for learning, acquaint them with methods of
study and research, methods of pursuing an idea. We can only hope they come
upon an idea they wish to pursue.”
“Personally, I believe
children should be taught to see, to observe, and to subject what they have
seen to analysis, and this in the earliest grades.”
I couldn’t agree more! He also speaks a great deal
about being a writer and learning to write well.
“’Where do you get your
ideas?’ If a person does not have ideas, he had better not even think of
becoming a writer. But ideas are everywhere. There are ideas enough in any
daily newspaper to keep a man writing for years.”
I found myself bookmarking page after page as I read.
I’ve still 30% of the book to go but I’m enjoying it far too much to rush it. I
highly recommend it.
“This book began as an account of how I
educated myself, but it has often wandered far afield. Yet I have ever been a
wanderer, drifting through fields of books and finding blossoms wherever they
might bloom. Education is everywhere, prompting one to think, to consider, to
remember.”
