The First Fast Draw

by Louis L'Amour

Here lies Sam Barlow, coward, thief, murderer.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Action, Adventure, Novels

156 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 1959

About the author

Louis Dearborn L'Amour was an American novelist and short story writer. His books consisted primarily of Western novels, though he called his work "frontier stories". His most widely known Western fiction works include Last of the Breed, Hondo, Shalako, and the Sackett series. L'Amour also wrote historical fiction (The Walking Drum), science fiction (The Haunted Mesa), non-fiction (Frontier), and poetry and short-story collections. Many of his stories were made into films. His 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 "one of the world's most popular writers".

Reviews

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Rain fell among the leaves, and I had a sorrow on me, and a deepening fury, too. Could a man not be left alone?" -- the thoughts of Cullen Baker, on page 6

Fairly standard and fleeting western story by L'Amour from his early years, highlighted by the first-person narration of modest but appealing protagonist Cullen Baker. The twentysomething Baker quietly returns to his family's humble but abandoned homestead in east Texas in the lean years immediately after the conclusion of the Civil War, and quickly arouses the ire of the local bullies and powerbrokers. Baker is sort of a tough customer and quite individualistic by nature but does not seek out trouble, although he also won't back down or run from it. Thus begins a succinct and action-oriented tale in which Baker (in no particular order) is kidnapped, targeted for murder, escapes from jail, and even falls in love with a kindly gal - from a respected and moneyed local family, naturally - who intuitively sees the actual good that is obscured by his rugged exterior. Not exactly L'Amour most polished or memorable paperback, but it gets the job done as a quick read.

[Gary Sites · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Belser got up suddenly and started for me and I just turned around. Holding the carbine belt-high thataway it was just almost naturally pointed at his belt buckle. Lead taken on a full stomach is mostly just indigestible, middle of the day, especially.
Belser stopped. He didn’t want to stop, I could see that, but maybe he was having trouble with his digestion and didn’t want anything to upset his stomach. Man like that, he has worries, and it doesn’t pay to take anything on your stomach you can’t rightly handle.”

Louis L’Amour certainly had a way with words, and it shows constantly in this fine early novel from 1959. It’s a unique western in that it takes place before gunslingers with fast draws populated the west. This first person account by Cullen Baker of how he thought of and became the first of this breed of men is a great, action-packed story.

[Benjamin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

“You could have bought my chances right then for a plugged two-bit piece and been ahead of the game. I felt like a limp deuce in an ace-high deck.”

I need to do some research and see if there exists a volume devoted to Louis L’Amour quotes. If so I’d light a shuck to get my hands on a copy. So much philosophical wisdom packed away in the guise of these western novels…

“The First Fast Draw” is a nice little story about a lone man named Cullen Baker who is forced to stand up to a bunch of bullies. It takes place just after the end of the Civil War and as the title implies, Cullen develops a new method of quick-drawing a pistol in order to stand a chance against multiple foes. A fairly good representation of L’Amour’s western fiction, I would say, although with a bit more of a romantic angle than he usually includes.

I always enjoy reading one of these westerns between larger novels, partly because it’s a good break, and partly because it’s a good stress reliever to read a book in which you know the good guys from the bad and you’re certain the good guys will emerge triumphant in the end. But on top of that, they are generally just good old fashioned storytelling.

[Angela R. Watts]

Couldn't hit the 100 page mark. Simply not engaging for me at this time... I skimmed parts and tried to see if anything farther on caught my attention, but nope.

[Jonathan Book · Rating 5 out of 5]

Louis does not miss

[Alan Tomkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'll go ahead and give this one two and a half to three stars because I enjoyed the action and the gun fights, but it definitely was not one of L'Amour's best efforts. There was very little character development; and the plot was sloppily constructed, haphazard, and full of holes and inconsistencies. It was kind of like he might have phoned this one in drunk, which is a shame, because he generally can be one of the best raconteurs who ever penned a western. It was a quick read and entertaining to a point, just not up to the usual Louis L'Amour standard.

[Steven · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wanted to read this again because it was the first L'Amour book I had read back in junior high. I loved it then and that started me collecting and reading all of his books. Such a fan boy then that I wrote him a letter and still have his signed reply (brown typewriter ink and brown ink autograph!). So long ago now that I expected this to be a fresh read. Wrong, it was like a flashback. A pleasurable one, though, as I must have read this ten times when I was thirteen and practically had it memorized. All came flooding back as I read. Anyway . . .

Great prodigal returns plot. Nice bit of post civil-war reconstruction history lesson. Cullen Baker holes up in the swamps practicing his quick draw to get an edge on his enemies who just won't let him farm the old homestead. L'Amour uses a catch and release, catch and release, narrative arc to keep the tension building to the final battle.

He had the smoothest, easiest reading style of all the classic wester writers. Always gave you characters to identify with and to root for, plus a cast of characters to root against. Friendship loyalty was a big part of L'Amour's ethos and that is a strong thread woven into the texture of this novel.

[Pete · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a great, simple story. I haven’t read this since I was about 13 yrs old and it was just as good a read. L’Amour is just as exciting as I remember and when you read each line you’re right there with Cullen Baker as the story unfolds. .

[Kirk · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one was a lot easier to follow than The High-Graders. It was easy to separate the foil characters from the primary ones. They were introduced in a way that made it easy to tell who was whom. That wasn’t the case with The High-Graders.

The fast draw-arguably the core of the book-was essentially taken care of with the novel version of a montage.

The love interest escalates laughably fast. After one dinner he’s telling her he’s got nothing if he doesn’t have her, and his friends are chiding him because they think she loves him. Of course, when folks are dying left and right maybe love does come a bit quicker 🕺🏿

Overall it was a good story about a guy who just wanted to plant some goddamned corn, and a bunch of motherfuckers who hated him because of petty small-town shit. I could have hated the villains a bit more. The terrible things they did were alluded to more than shown, but that makes for a broader audience, so I get it.

It ended a bit abruptly, with too clean a conclusion, but I still enjoyed it. Maybe I’m a little bias though, because this was one of my grandfather’s books, the only one of his I still have. I never liked westerns much, so I took one just to remember him by, and then picked up a bunch of my grandma’s horror books, because that was-and mainly is-what I go for.

But westerns have an appeal that I’ve come to admire as I get older. There’s some pleasure in knowing small stories, small towns, and small people, sometimes get remembered. It makes me feel like L’amour was elevating the otherwise forgotten. Because we have to look out for one another. Because history is both big and small, so we’ve got to be the keepers of our stories and our ancestor’s stories.

Also there is a character named Throckmorton, so there’s that.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of my favorite Westerns. Louis L’Amour takes quite a few liberties with the truth (based on the sources I’ve read, the historical Cullen Baker was a rogue and a ruffian who deserved to hang), but this is a terrific read nonetheless. It’s a story of love, ambition, and revenge with a very satisfying ending. Probably not an epic American novel, but an entertaining story that I enjoy revisiting from time to time.

[Michael Graeme · Rating 4 out of 5]

My introduction to the western genre, passed onto me by my 14yr old son who's currently going through Louis L'Amour like a dose of salts. Thoroughly enjoyed it. A fairly short tale, about 150 pages. Very descriptive of the landscape, and quite insightful I thought, as well as being a book of action and of course lots of gunsmoke. The writing is easy to get into, very simple prose and dialogue style, but far from simplistic. It's easy to see why Louis L'Amour has the reputation he does. I'll be reading more of his stories.

[Moe Shinola · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a really good book to start with if you're new to L'Amour's books. It moves along well, has a good story and characters, and ends well also. After this you should check out The Sky-Liners and Sackett.

[Fredrick Danysh · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colin Baker returns to his farm in East Texas after three years of wandering following the Civil War. He had fought on the wrong side according to his neighbors who also want his land. He has to fight for his life and a girl.

[serena482* · Rating 4 out of 5]

My rating 4.5 stars. I really enjoyed this one!!! :D

[Fran Burdsall · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm always delighted with the characters that populate Louis L'Amour's western novels. They just have so much substance and depth. In spite of the violence, you know our hero will get the girl and they will live happily ever after. I always breeze through these books, never disappointed, for a satisfying ending.

[Chad · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great western story. Could have used slightly more action.

[Mike · Rating 3 out of 5]

Story of an East Texas slinger who invents his own fast draw - good horse, gun and fightin' tale.

[Sonny Yates · Rating 3 out of 5]

It’s no McCarthy but still pretty good. Short and quick. Love ya Grandpa

[Oleta Blaylock · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not a big fan of books written in first person. You seem to miss something when you only have one person's point of view. This story is set in Texas just after the Civil War. It is a time of carpetbaggers and outlaws and Reconstruction. Now I didn't know there were any swamps in Texas having only ever seeing the country along I-40 were most of the country is range land and farms. Mostly there is only mesquite and grass and every few people. It is ranch country. This is a rough time for those that supported the South. The people of the North were determined to punish those that didn't see things the way they did. Not all the people that went to the South and into Texas were upstanding citizens. They were outlaws and thieves looking to make a quick buck and steal whatever they could.

This an interesting story and it gave me some insight to the time after the Civil War. There isn't much history taught of that time, at least in the schools I attended. I always seem to learn something new when I read one of Mr. L'Amour's books. I think that is another reason that I enjoy reading them so much.

[Michael Kennard · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read most of Louis Lamour's books when I was in my late teens and early twenties. They are important to me as they were some of the first books that got me into the reading habit. For that I shall be forever grateful

[Jeffrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was my 2nd L'Amour book. His books are simple but they are not dumb. He did his research when it came to history, weapons, etc. Good stuff.

[Jeff Carpenter · Rating 5 out of 5]

An interesting take on an alternate history of Cullen Baker.

[wally · Rating 3 out of 5]

started finished 9th march 2025 good read three stars i liked it nothing less nothing more kindle library loaner have read more than 40 stories from l'amour and that's counting whatever collection of shorts as a one enjoyed them all, all entertaining reads. this one set in the days after the civil war...maybe three years after, four years, after the war, carpet baggers and the like. all the playground bullies running amok. 'bout like turning on the news and hearing about the politicians crowing about trump...likely to distract the people from hearing about the fraud and waste in the fucking millions...no doubt trillions...for as long as it has gone on. and like all the current distractions there's a number of local clowns who speak ill of cullen repeating rumors and slander and others believing it. cullen has friends though he has often been alone. eventually good triumphs though evil has its say.
any l'amour story has men and women of principle, has men and women who are bent and evil. there is always conflict. often the innocent suffer. at least l'amour is not like one current writer james lee burke who i will not read anymore since he seems hell-bent on pacifying his existential guilt about what the white man might have done to a native american...l'amour on the other than, makes a point more than once in more than story, that tribe "a" beat the ever-living fuck out of tribes 'b" "c" and "d" because they were stronger and they wanted the possessions and lives of those others. nobody is losing any existential sleep over the matter. some refuse to apologize for being white. some people are so fucking stupid they can't even identify what a woman is. this is our world.

[Ryan Mishap · Rating 1 out of 5]

The boom reverberated off the canyon walls and the screams and the smoke and the noise—I’m ashamed to say I fainted. I came to rather quickly, the explosive percussion fading like a thunderclap far away, but my mind had fallen into that other canyon—the darker one of memory. That last night in our town, before we were ordered to evacuate, when Mother screamed and smoke billowed from the broken windows of the church. That night when I-
Funny, the places your mind takes you at inopportune moments. I read a novel for school that was written as if it were a teenager’s diary. It told of her family’s journey to a new land, America (part of the Old Country), and I remember being annoyed that she stopped a sentence as if she had been interrupted speaking and not writing. A bothersome affectation, I thought, or, worse, a cheap trick to fool the reader into suspense. Yet here I just did the very same thing I criticized in my report (I got an “A”). I promise I won’t do that again.
Pa helped me up and I was rather touched his first concern was my welfare instead of what the deuce just happened. Our wagon was more or less in the middle of the caravan, so our view in either direction was blocked. Shouting could be heard and soon men were pushing past us, heading to the front of the group. I was still woozy when Mother appeared, grim faced.
“Stay,” was all she said. I nodded, looking past her to my sister’s face peering out the wagon door. I’d seen her scowl at Mother’s back before, but the look on her face just then…I couldn’t place it, connect the emotion.
Pa melted away during the next interval after Father appeared to check on our well-being. Both my parents were soon off, disappearing from sight in the ungodly amount of dust created by the explosion, but not before I heard her spit out “Chiggers!” and he “Accident.”
I decided on action myself. Though my legs trembled when I followed, I was determined to atone for my previous weakness. After all, many a hero has quailed before conquering fear and finding his true strength.
I fancied the rail a narrow bridge above some foreboding chasm, letting it guide me through the smoke and dust and only stepping off to pass around wagons. I heard voices, sensed the presence of others, but did not stop. I must have been close to the front when I thought I heard Pa—well, our Pa, I should say as many of the families had brought along their servants. The smoke was thick and slow like thoughts when one first awakes, but I thought I could see indistinct silhouettes when I looked left. Their whispers rode the pressure waves of silence that followed the explosion and I stopped to listen.
“………………, …….”
“……. No, no, ……….”
“…………………………………………………?”
“Okay, Okay, ………………….”
The English words were certainly spoken by our Pa, and the rest was the gibberish the natives grunted at each other when they thought themselves alone. Probably making fun of us, Mother always said. “The Great do and the feebleminded poke fun.”
I stepped off the rail, silent footfalls brought me closer, and then I heard a quick intake of breath. The silhouettes broke apart: one moving up the seemingly impossible to climb canyon wall and the other towards me. It was just our Pa, our Pa, I told myself, but I-
Damn it! I really will stop doing that. I just, I ran. Turned and ran at the sight of a shadow coming at me. After that last night in our town I thought I’d, well, I’d thought I had become less of a-
Damn it all to hell.

(Gwen's Diary):
I’m frightened. I want to see what happened, if anyone’s hurt but I’m still scared of Mother. I’m ashamed of this but I’ve seen what she’s capable of. What Father is incapable of and what my brother-
And I realize this second that this is the first time I’ve truly been alone since we fled town and the first thing I do is write in my diary like one of those forlorn but beautiful girls in those laughable stories Mother tells me are proper literature for young ladies. For empty headed preeners without a single original thought in their doe-eyed heads is more like it, oh, but except of course they find their True Self and inner strength just in time to throw it away marrying some noble hero. But I could probably flip back through this diary and find dozens of pages with whining on that topic but what I’m really thinking about is not knowing what’s going on out there, what’s going on with my family and what am I going to do?
You’ve become my only friend, diary, and even though I thought it was a silly lark to anthropormor-…whatever, you, I still do it. Think of you as someone real I’m writing to. I’m the one that writes in this stupid thing and re-reads it so I guess I’m my only friend and does that sound pathetic, Gwen? But I don’t know what else to do and there’s no one to talk to.
Mother is horrible, so cruel, like a caricature of the evil aunt the forlorn girl has to gather the courage to confront (is this one of her hints?). If those girls had to confront Mother, they’d wilt under her stare, cry, and dissolve into a puddle, a forlorn puddle of failure.
Father is hopeless, brooding over matters of state, listless when it comes to us and ignoring how Uncle Samuel has practically taken over his life. Actually, our family is almost exactly like one of those novels!
I miss my old brother. Space Captain to my First Mate. We used to play. He used to tell me stuff, even embarrassing stuff like one of his first PE classes when he couldn’t climb the rope ‘cos his body wasn’t used to the increased gravity yet. That brother is gone, stolen by whatever faeries they have on this planet. They replaced him with some smirking dopplewhosit intent on Trying To Be A MAN. So full of himself, he doesn’t even realize how much it hurts to have him brush me off and refuse to talk about Mother and Uncle and about how wrong it is to have slaves and about how lonely I am. The way Mother treats him and Father ignores him I think maybe he might see that he doesn’t have to be what he thinks they want. I had hope until the so-called Attacks. Until he showed how like them he already was. Too late.
I’m crying, diary, me, right now, thinking of that night and everything. The whole colonization thing and I know it was “decades before we got here” and that “the old must give way to the new” and it’s “just the way things are” but when I think of what we’ve done to the Chikra.
And I know it’s selfish when so many others are suffering but I’m crying for myself too because I feel so trapped and I’m so alone.

(end of first half of story)

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a Louis L'Amour novel, this one just doesn't reach the level of excellence I've come to expect. I don't know for sure, but this one reads like an earlier novel, because he just doesn't seem in the groove he was in his later works. The story is interesting and somewhat original, and focuses on the men who walked away from the Civil War with few homes to return to, and even less respect from those they left.

The novel focuses on Cleve Ellerson, a tough and determined young man who wants nothing more than to farm the land his parents left behind, and live a normal life. Of course, the wild ruffians he grew up with and who hate him, are quite ready to disrupt his peaceful plans. Cleve rides around on a mule, not a horse, which I found quite odd, but as the narrative continued, I began to realize that the archetypal cowboy we all know and love really didn't exist in the form we are used to back then. In fact, the art of the quick draw was simply an unknown concept to people at the time. Cleve mentions that men didn't draw guns from holsters, but rather just tucked into their pants. Well, eventually, Cleve is forced to learn the art of the quick draw, ultimately becoming...wait for it...the first fast draw.

Ultimately the writing is decent--nothing special or powerful, but effective nonetheless. The story was a bit "meh." The action is scarce, and the payoff at the end just doesn't have the emotionally and revenge-fulfilling power I've come to expect from L'Amour novels. I won't read this one again, but I will continue to read the novels from this author as I consider him a literary legend.

[Lisa Horsch · Rating 3 out of 5]

All Cullen Baker wants is to honor his parents by returning to the family’s land in Texas to grow corn and breed horses. He thinks he is a bad man, but deep down he knows he is not. He has some steadfast friends, and bad people don’t have those.
-“Maybe I can make it mean something to be me. But hereabouts folks have little use for me, and I’ve less use for them.”
-“I’m no wanderer at all, but just a homebody who would rather be unhappy among familiar surroundings and faces than happy anywhere else.”

He falls in love with a local widow who’s husband had been friendly to him.
-“Where you are not—I would not feel alive”, he says surprising and scaring himself as he blurts this out to her.

He has trouble with local groups of people that he tries to avoid. He doesn’t start trouble, but he won’t run away from it either.
-“I had most unfriendly ideas about dying, particularly from a gunshot.”

He is concerned about allies getting hurt or killed by helping him, so he is determined to use his physical strength to break himself out of jail before he is illegally hanged.
-“Most folks are apt to forget favors you’ve done them, fact is, they remember the favors they do for you far better”, he thinks as he is surprised by one young lady he had a hand in rescuing who is now aiding him in his jail escape.

I enjoyed reading about the environment and landscape of Texas along the Arkansas and Louisiana borders. I loved having a map at the beginning to refer back to!

[Ward G · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is set during the reconstruction years. After the civil war, in the south.
Cullen returning home, to find.

Old friends on the run, having to hide out in the swamps.
Carpet baggers, trying to buy or steal all the can.

Outlaw bands, riding and raiding.
As law of any form is scarce. The men finding as they returnhome.
It is hard to determine who is right and who is wrong.
Who is on the side of law and who is only posing that way.
To use it to get what they want illegally.

Cullen wants to make his old home. Into a working farm.
Meeting friends of old. As well as finding the woman of his dreams, is not far off.
With so much at stake. He begins to learn to quick draw.
To save what is his. As the list of his enemies seems to keep growing.

Heading for a showdown. One of the outlaws kin to the woman he falls in love with.

A nice outing, that has a decent wrap up, and kind of ending. For the main character.
At least a glimpse into how his life plays out. After the events of the main story.
One of the few things keeping it from a 5 star.
Simply seems to try and interact. With to many minor characters.
That have some small impact. Yet are not major or main characters.

Still an interesting read.

[Craig Ferris · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love Louis L'Amour, because he wrote about uncommon places and times in American history. The First Fast Draw makes you feel like you were riding along with Cullen Baker in East Texas along the Louisiana state line. Unlike most of L'Amour's Western stories, this one takes place right at the conclusion of the Civil War during Reconstruction. That was a time when the violence of the West was dominated by renegades, outlaws, and feuds. This book embodies that desperate time.

Fast Draw moves along at a very brisk pace. Unlike many other L'Amour stories, there is little time wasted getting to the gun fighting. The only timeouts are to describe the abject poverty of Cullen Baker and those that rode with him as well as the spooky countryside full of swamps and dense thickets of forest. This was easily a top ten L'Amour story for me. The only letdown is we never know what happened to one of the main bad guys. Oh well, for me, this story is still close to perfection.

[Rob Gast · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoy a Louis L'Amour western every once in a while for something different, and over the years I have finished about half of the novels I've started. This one is exemplary of L'Amour's skill weaving together detail, description and character to spin a good yarn with a satisfying, if simplistic, ending.

It's one of those stories that in the last 3 pages you are wondering how in the world it will end.

Not all Westerns are created equal, this one is another in the genre of the young, outsider-yet-with-resources-and-skills who has to vanquish enemies and clear his name and reputation, helped by the promises and potential of the legendary Old West.

This story also celebrates the power of loyalty and friendship. Cullen's friends are the kinds of friends anyone would want to have, and they pay a price to side with him.

[Victor Mendez · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read “The First Fast Draw” by Louis L’Amour. The setting of this book is in east Texas. The main character name is Cullen Baker. I decided to read this book because I like western books.
The book is about a man named Cullen Baker returning home after the civil war. And finding that his land is about to get confiscated by the reconstruction soldiers. And the mail conflict is his trying to protect his home from thief’s and the soldiers.
I think the ending was not that great. My favorite part of the book is when Cullen Baker is hunting the gang that jumped him and tried to kill him.
I think that this book is pretty good. Other books that are similar are western books. And people that might like this book are people who like cowboy and action books.