Chick Bowdrie befriends the son and daughter of a man accused of poisoning a neighbor's horse and acts as the man's defense counsel. Louis L'Amour (1908-1988) was a prolific writer of novels and short stories, usually frontier stories of the American West. Book sale estimates of 230 million and 330 million rank L'Amour among the bestselling authors in world history. L'Amour's fiction continues to enjoy immense popularity as books, audiobooks, and films. L'Amour received many awards, including the Congressional Gold Medal and the Presidential Medal of Freedom. L'Amour was born in Jamestown, North Dakota, the seventh child of a large animal veterinarian. He was a voracious reader and largely self-taught. He traveled the world as a merchant seaman, earned money as a professional boxer, worked as a rancher, miner, and lumberjack, and served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Army in World War II.