The book that I'm posting about today is not new (copyright 2002), but I recently re-read it and was delighted by it for a second time. "A Wounded Thing Must Hide: The Search for Libbie Custer" is a great book for anyone interested in the Wild West and American territorial history. Author Jeremy Poolman has woven a truly unusual and beguiling story of the wife of General George Armstrong Custer, of Last Stand infamy. From the book jacket:
"Haunted by the death of his own wife, the author follows Libbie Custer through her extraordinary life in search of he knows not what. He vividly recreates key scenes in Libby's life--meeting the Empress Elizabeth of Austria, Tsar Alexander III, and Henry James--and details the glorious, wayward career of the general himself, culminating at the slaughter at Little Bighorn."
For those of you unfamiliar with the famous couple known as the Custers, Libbie was absolutely devoted to her husband. After he was killed in the Last Stand, his reputation was damaged and she did her best for the rest of her lonely life to repair and protect it.
I've visited Little Bighorn Battlefield in Montana several times, and I am always awestruck by the eeriness of this large piece of grassland where so many died. Numerous books have been written about Custer and what went wrong that fateful day in the summer of 1876, but none that I've read have been written from Libbie's perspective. This book has it all--romance, history, adventure--and leaves a lasting impression.
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