”Trouble just naturally seemed to latch onto me and hang on with all its teeth.” William Tell Sackett likes to be left alone. Lean and gangling, he’s peaceful, until riled. Most of his life he’s been“lighting a shuck” but, when trouble comes, he get’s biblical and “smites it hip and thigh.”Like his creator, Louis L’Amour, William Tell Sacket is “a wandering man.” Tell fought for the Union in the Civil War, drove cattle to Montana, and now, hungering for a strange country, he’s looking to settle in New Mexico. He just wants land on which he can crop, graze, and rear a family, but the Bigelow brothers want vengeance for the death of their brother. “It wasn’t as if Bigelow hadn’t been warned. He got it straight, with no beating around the mesquite. "In New Mexico, Sackett finds gold, “a hard-found thing, and when a man finds it, he’s bound to fetch trouble keeping it.” Also he finds trouble when he falls in love with Ange Kerry, who, like Grace Kelly in High Noon, is a scold, contemptuous of his frontier justice. Tell tries to explain to Ange: Folks who live sheltered lives away from violent men have no idea how they have to be dealt with. People who live in comfortable, settled towns with law-abiding citizens and a government to protect them, they never seem to think of the men who came first, the ones who came through hell to build something. Tell goes through hell to build a new settlement in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains of New Mexico. I know this country because I camp the New Mexico high country among the aspens, pinyon junipers, and bristlecone pines. Reading L’Amour, I hear the crackling of my fire, watch flames strike pitch and flare up--mesmerizing as they change color and release perfume into the pine-scented night. I have awakened to watch morning paint the sunrise and to smell bacon frying and my coffee brewing. I had misjudged and avoided L’Amour’s serial Westerns. My loss. These are excellent yarns, spun by a master storyteller. I had a great time riding this trail, and I will mount up and “light a shuck” with the wandering man again. July 15, 2013
When my father was my age, his favorite books to read were the classic stories of Louis L’amour. He loved those books, and still does today. So, when he heard about this assignment, he suggested that I give his favorite one, Sackett, a try. I’m really glad I did. My interest in the setting of the story combined with the historical fiction made for a great read.First of all, Sackett is a wonderful book about the life and times of a man in the Wild West. The main character, Tell Sackett, experiences many adventures. He finds a plot of gold, falls in love with a woman, and battles a bunch of bad guys. His life, as well as a few others, are put and stake many times throughout the book. It’s a classic country-western book that is suspenseful until the very end. I have been fortunate enough to live in two states in my lifetime. These states are Colorado and Texas, both of which also happen to be the setting of Sackett. The main character, Tell Sackett, travels all the way from Uvalde, Texas to the Sangre De Cristo Mountains of Colorado. This really spiked my interest in the book because I have lived within an hour of both of these places. It was great to be able to connect to the book on a personal level. Only a few other books have really hit home like this one.My absolute favorite subject is American History. My main interest is the Revolutionary War, but a close second is Westward Expansion. This book was absolutely fantastic in that regard. I loved how L’amour included the Gold Rush and other aspects of Western Culture like saloons, guns, and good ‘ole country showdowns. This is a fantastic book. 4.5 stars 297 words.
What do You think about Sackett (1981)?
First Louis L'Amour book...lots of fun. There is something very satisfying about reading something that you have a pretty good idea what it's going to be about, and then you pick it up and it's a fun and easy read and it met all of your expectations. It's just like sitting down to a John Wayne movie...you know what you're in for even if you don't know the specifics of that movie. There's going to be a lot of shootouts and the bad guys are going to lose and the hero gets the girl. This book was really enjoyable because it was just the kind of Western I expected.
—Jennifer Hughes
Another excellent story by L'Amour about the type of men who settled the west. After the Civil War he drifted west working anything from cattle drives to riverboats. After killing a man who tried to kill him he decided it was time to try to improve his life. On his way down to New Mexico to visit his brothers (see Daybreakers) he stumbles on a rich vein of gold. After talking to his brothers he and Cap Rountree get the supplies together to mine that gold. With gold being one of those things that tends to draw unwanted attention they ran into trouble almost from the beginning. Also in the valley where he found the gold he found a young woman whose grandfather had found the gold first. He rescued her and faced the trouble that found them. Tell is another one of L'Amour's quiet heroes. He doesn't go looking for trouble but he doesn't run from it either. He has a strict code of honor and believes in the difference between right and wrong. One of the things he was determined to do was to improve his reading which he did by reading a book about law which gave him a lot to think about. I also liked the way that he tried to resolve issues without shooting if it was possible. Besides the intense drama of some of the events, there were also some funny times. I really enjoyed the shaving scene at the beginning and also his dealing with the interlopers of the town near the end.
—Susan
Tell Sackett is a “homely man.” There is “no getting around it,” as he admits. “Over-tall and mighty little meat, with a big-boned face like a wedge. There was an old scar on my cheekbone from a cutting scrape in New Orleans. My shoulders were heavy with muscle, but a mite stooped. In my wore-out army shirt and cow-country jeans I didn’t come to much.” 'But Tell Sacket, like many L’Amour characters, has principles and heart and a willingness to get tough and fight when the time is right. “Sackett” starts out a bit reflective, almost self-analytical but picks up steam after Tell finds gold and a young woman in a remote cave. The conflicts finally ramp up. We know there will be gunfire and a few lessons along the way. As always, the Western scenery is strong. It turns out that it’s okay to kill a man, in L’Amour’s world of principles, as long as you “shot them honest.” A good read, not great.
—Mark Stevens
