Education of a Wandering Man by Louis L'Amour

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.”