The Work of Louis L’Amour: An Annotated Bibliography & Guide by Hal W. Hall (review)

150 WesternAmerican Literature the stage for her breezy indictment ofprevious Twain studies and her simplifica­ tion of the personal and professional dilemmas Clemens faced as he worked to find and then tune his storytelling voice. Admittedly, Lennon is right to draw our attention back to Clemens’ early success in frontier journalism. Her account of his immersion in western and west coast bohemianism also focuses our attention on the environment that nurtured his creativity; however, her conclusion that Mark Twain was fully evolved with the publication of Innocents Abroad discounts much of what we know of Clemens’ evolution as a writer. She moves further afield when she speculates about Clemens’ sexual escapades and hypothesizes that his death at 75 was likely caused by cardiovascular syphilis (her proof seems to be that there is no evidence to the contrary). On the other hand, deliberate accumulation of evidence and logical con­ nection highlight Steinbrink’s analysis of Clemens’personal and literary devel­ opment. Here we have an in-depth and well developed analysis of Clemens’ restless attempts to find a wife and a profession. These are not unrelated. From 1868 to 1871 Clemens struggled through ambivalent feelings aboutjournalism and newspaper ownership and the urge to be known as aserious writer ofbooks. That struggle was simultaneous with his courtship of Olivia Langdon. In fact, Jervis Langdon’s financial backing tied home and profession together in a way that both soothed and chafed as Clemens experimented with publishing, lectur­ ing, magazine work, and book writing. Langdon’s death seems to have opened the way for Clemens’ development as a writer. Steinbrink’s discussion of Clemens’ conflicts is insightful. Most importantly, Steinbrink focuses on Clemens’ struggle to control and shape Mark Twain’s voice. He acknowledges Clemens’ debt to the western experience and rightly points out that the early Mark Twain is inextricably tied to the West. Steinbrink’s analysis of the composition of RoughingIt offers a look at how Clemens worked to tune the voice that sounded through InnocentsAbroad and, above all, captures the uncertainty that was very much a part of Clemens’ decision to devote his energies to book writing. The story of that decision is compelling. MICHAELJ. KISKIS Empire State College The Work ofLouis L Amour: An Annotated Bibliography & Guide. By Hal W. Hall. (San Bernardino, California: The Borgo Press, 1991. 192 pages, $30.00/ $20.00.) This thorough, meticulous bibliography is most commendable. In its main section, with subsections each chronologically arranged, Hall lists 130 books by Louis L’Amour, with full details concerning reprints and translations; 194 ofhis Reviews 151 short stories; 32 essays, reviews, and open letters; 59 poems; 63 audiotapes and records; and 25 movies and television shows based on his works. Hall also lists 200 critical, biographical, and bibliographical items (some unpublished) con­ cerning L’Amour. Hall includes an introduction by Michael T. Marsden, a chronology of L’Amour’s life, a list of his honors and awards, a section called “Quoth the Critics,” and a previously unpublished conversation with L’Amour conducted by Marsden and Kristine Fredriksson in Los Angeles on March 17, 1985. An index lists 635 L’Amour titles—every piece ofwriting, every movie and TV production, every tape and record, and every translation. Hall deserves special praise for several features. After each book title, he gives publication data, including page lengths, cloth and/or paper, ISBNs and allied numbers, and cover and map artists where known, and he cites major reviews and secondary source material. For each novel and almost every screen adaptation, he provides a brief plot summary. For each collection, he indicates full contents. A description ofone main entry will be sufficiently illustrative. For Hondo, Hall lists eight American editions (one in a collection), seven British editions (one in large print),two Spanish translations, two German, one Norwe­ gian, and one Serbo-Croatian; provides a three-sentence plot summary; names the short story on which Hondowas based, and the movie and TV series based on it; and lists three reviews of it. A cross-reference leads to the movie entry, which names the producing company, gives the movie’s date and length, names the screenplay author, and lists the entire cast. It is...