Yebo, according to Louis L'Amour himself he was a professional boxer who won something like 51 out of 59 matches. However, his son, who researched his career in order to publish a biography, found it difficult to verify his claims. He has found that Louis fought under various names and that he sometimes fought for money simply to eat. This, of course, is technically a professional match, but since so many of these matches were fought in small towns all over the world no official records were ever kept. I think you read the only sci-fi book LL ever wrote - I quite forgot he wrote Haunted Mesa, as it wasn't one of my favourite books. But I loved his books growing up, spent all my time in secondhand bookshops and read them all to pieces. I wasn't a big a fan of the Edge books - they felt too forced, with every chapter needing to end on some kind of pun and a world that was quite bleak and nihilistic. Plus, since Harknett (Gilman's real name) had never actually been to the West it was difficult to find his books convincing, especially compared to LL who not only grew up in the West, but had met many of the characters he wrote about and lived a life that would (and was) perfectly at home in any of his books. I do concede that, especially with there being so many of them, his books and stories could become somewhat repetitious and predictable - but when he was good, he was VERY good. Although, my favourite Western novel of all time is and always will be Shane, by Jack Schaefer.
