To celebrate the centennial of Louis L'Amour's birth, Bantam Books, his publisher for more than 50 years, is offering a copy of Education of a Wandering Man to all "the more than 100,000 free lending libraries in the U.S." Originally published in 1989, a year after L'Amour's death, the memoir is being reissued on May 6.
Bantam calls Education of a Wandering Man L'Amour's "reflection on his lifelong love affair with learning and his most personal work ever." In the book, L'Amour wrote about growing up in Jamestown, N.D., with parents "who instilled in him love of the printed and spoken word," leaving school at age 15 and about his travels around the U.S. and the world, which inspired his fiction.
The offer is for all libraries in the country that lend books free to members, including public libraries, public school libraries, private lending and institutional lending libraries. Bantam is promoting the L'Amour Centennial National Library Celebration at library meetings, through mailings and ads, on the L'Amour website and on a special website.
In March, the Library of Congress's Center for the Book named L'Amour its inaugural "Champion of the Book."