Louis L'Amour

Louis L'Amour was born Louis Dearborn LaMoore, a decidedly un-Jewish name, in Jamestown, North Dakota. His family lineage seems to stretch back through a long line of Irish and French stock, with absolutely no detours through Jerusalem or even, say, Brooklyn.

He penned over 100 novels and 250 short stories, selling hundreds of millions of copies worldwide. He's the kind of author whose books you find on every dusty shelf in every small town, often well-loved and slightly dog-eared, a testament to his enduring appeal.

While his contributions to American literature, particularly the Western genre, are undeniably significant, there's not a whisper, not a hint, not even a faint echo of anything remotely Jewish about his life or work. He was a man of the American frontier, not the shtetl, and his characters rode horses, not the subway.

So, while his literary output might have been vast enough to rival the Talmud in sheer volume, culturally speaking, Louis L'Amour was as gentile as a tumbleweed in a blizzard.