THE BATTLE OF THE LITTLE BIG HORN  by Sandoz, Mari

Philadelphia, 1966, Lippincott, 3rd US printing, hard bound in dust jacket, 6 x 8 1/2, VG/VG condition, 191 pages, maps, appendice, bibliog, index.......................................................This beautifully written account of the battle on which General George Armstrong Custer staked his life—and lost—reveals on every page Mari Sandoz's intimate knowledge of her subject. The character of the Sioux, the personality of Custer, the mixed emotions of Custer's men, the Plains landscape—all are conveyed with such artistry that the reader feels himself transported back to that spring of 1876, when the Army of the Plains began its fateful march toward the Yellowstone . . . when Custer's Indian guides and even his own men saw, but were obliged to disregard, ominous signs of a vast Indian gathering near by............................................The background of the tragedy is here: the history of bad blood and broken treaties between the Sioux Nation and the United States, the underlying reason for the Army expedition and for the convocation of Indians on the Little Bighorn that particular year.The author's analysis of Custer's motives and political ambitions sheds new light on an old mystery and will be hotly disputed by the General's admirers.