Louis Dearborn L'Amour (; 22 March 1908 – 10 June 1988) was an American author. His books consisted primarily of Western novels (though he called his work 'frontier stories'); however, he also wrote historical fiction (The Walking Drum), science fiction (The Haunted Mesa), nonfiction (Frontier), as well as poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into movies. L'Amour's books remain popular and most have gone through multiple printings. At the time of his death almost all of his 105 existing works (89 novels, 14 short-story collections, and two full-length works of nonfiction) were still in print, and he was considered "one of the world's most popular writers".