The Custer Story : The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth

Marguerite Merington

ISBN 10: 0803281382 / ISBN 13: 9780803281387

Published by Bison Books Sep 1987, 1987

About this Item

Neuware - During separations enforced by the military, Lieutenant General George A. Custer and his wife, Elizabeth, corresponded about the Civil War, the perils of frontier life, and the chain of events that would lead to his tragic death at the Little Big Horn in Montana Territory. Their letters reveal the nuances of personal and political loyalties rarely expressed by historians and novelists. And they reveal a devotion rare among wartime marriages. He was her 'Autie,' her 'Darling Boy,' and she was his 'Libbie,' his 'Darling Sunbeam.' When Elizabeth Custer died in 1933, after fifty-seven years of widowhood, she left behind these treasured letters. Her friend and literary executor, Marguerite Merington, edited them, adding related materials and a thread of narrative reaching from Custer's birth on an Ohio farm to the final fury at the Little Big Horn.

Seller Inventory # 9780803281387

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Custer Story : The Life and Intimate Letters of General George A. Custer and His Wife Elizabeth
• Publisher: Bison Books Sep 1987
• Publication Date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0803281382
• ISBN 13: 9780803281387
• Binding: Taschenbuch
• Condition: Neu
• Dimensions: 219W x 138H x 23D millimeters 219 millimeters width by 138 millimeters height by 23 millimeters depth
• Weight: 540 grams

About this title

Synopsis

During separations enforced by the military, Lieutenant General George A. Custer and his wife, Elizabeth, corresponded about the Civil War, the perils of frontier life, and the chain of events that would lead to his tragic death at the Little Big Horn in Montana Territory. Their letters reveal the nuances of personal and political loyalties rarely expressed by historians and novelists. And they reveal a devotion rare among wartime marriages. He was her "Autie," her "Darling Boy," and she was his "Libbie," his "Darling Sunbeam."

When Elizabeth Custer died in 1933, after fifty-seven years of widowhood, she left behind these treasured letters. Her friend and literary executor, Marguerite Merington, edited them, adding related materials and a thread of narrative reaching from Custer's birth on an Ohio farm to the final fury at the Little Big Horn.

Review

"The letters provide a rare and unusual contribution to the basic data of America's military and social history—a wife's-eye view of war and soldiering, and a soldier's on-the-spot confidences to his wife. . . . Neither of the Custers was writing for posterity, and posterity becomes thereby the gainer."—Saturday Review of Literature (Saturady Review of Literature)

"There is much interest here for anyone interested in the man and his deeds."—Hoffman Birney, New York Times (Hoffman Birney New York Times)