Status
Available
Call number
Collections
Publication
Viking Adult (1999), Edition: First Edition, 160 pages
Description
Legends cloud the life of Crazy Horse, a seminal figure in American history but an enigma even to his own people in his own day. This superb biography looks back across more than 120 years at the life and death of this great Sioux warrior who became a reluctant leader at the Battle of Little Bighorn. With his uncanny gift for understanding the human psyche, Larry McMurtry animates the character of this remarkable figure, whose betrayal by white representatives of the U.S. government was a tragic turning point in the history of the West. A mythic figure puzzled over by generations of historians, Crazy Horse emerges from McMurtry's sensitive portrait as the poignant hero of a long-since-vanished epoch.
User reviews
LibraryThing member dougwood57
Larry McMurtry (Telegraph Days, Lonesome Dove) brings his clean and concise writing style to this brief but illuminating life of Crazy Horse.
This compact little biography is one of the Penguin Lives series that features what Penguin Books web site describes as an "innovative series of biographies
In the case of Crazy Horse not a heck of lot is really known about the man. As McMurtry points out, most of what we know about Crazy Horse and most Indians derives from their contact with whites and Crazy Horse generally avoided whites to the fullest extent possible. He was a brave warrior, a leader of his people at times, but not truly a chief, a loner, an iconoclast within a tribe of iconoclasts.
Crazy Horse is an iconic figure who captures the imagination. His life of some 35 or so years spanned the rapid transformation of the West from the free days of the nomadic Plains tribes and limitless buffalo herds to the confinement of those peoples on poor reservations and the destruction of the herds. Crazy Horse never really yielded to the whites unlike nearly all other Indian leaders, not that it mattered much in the grand scheme of things because no strategy was going to change the ultimate outcome. Crazy Horse declined to go to Washington, resisted any restraints, refused to attend the parleys with the whites.
He did ultimately sacrifice his own freedom when he brought his 900 or so followers after the brutal winter of 1876-1877 - just months after the twin victories over Crook at Rosebud and Custer at Little Bighorn. Crazy Horse was killed, probably by the bayonet of a white soldier as he resisted his final arrest. His death was a blessing as the whites planned to ship him to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, a tiny prison atoll in Florida.
Unlike other popular authors, notably Stephen Ambrose, McMurtry resists the temptation to let his imagination roam too freely and sticks mostly to the known facts and reasonable deductions to be drawn from them. Those facts however immutably established Crazy Horse as perhaps the single most romantic and heroic figure of the great American Western epic. He lived free, defeated Custer, the great white romantic figure, and then died young "in the last moments when the Sioux could think of themselves as free. By an accident of fate, the man and the way of life died together...he came to be the symbol of Sioux freedom, Sioux courage, and Sioux dignity." (Page 17, hardcover edition)
Highly recommended for any reader with an interest in the American West.
This compact little biography is one of the Penguin Lives series that features what Penguin Books web site describes as an "innovative series of biographies
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pairing celebrated writers with famous individuals who have shaped our thinking." The series is worth looking into for its other biographies of Churchill by John Keegan, Buddha by Karen Armstrong, and Saint Augustine by Garry Wills among others. In the case of Crazy Horse not a heck of lot is really known about the man. As McMurtry points out, most of what we know about Crazy Horse and most Indians derives from their contact with whites and Crazy Horse generally avoided whites to the fullest extent possible. He was a brave warrior, a leader of his people at times, but not truly a chief, a loner, an iconoclast within a tribe of iconoclasts.
Crazy Horse is an iconic figure who captures the imagination. His life of some 35 or so years spanned the rapid transformation of the West from the free days of the nomadic Plains tribes and limitless buffalo herds to the confinement of those peoples on poor reservations and the destruction of the herds. Crazy Horse never really yielded to the whites unlike nearly all other Indian leaders, not that it mattered much in the grand scheme of things because no strategy was going to change the ultimate outcome. Crazy Horse declined to go to Washington, resisted any restraints, refused to attend the parleys with the whites.
He did ultimately sacrifice his own freedom when he brought his 900 or so followers after the brutal winter of 1876-1877 - just months after the twin victories over Crook at Rosebud and Custer at Little Bighorn. Crazy Horse was killed, probably by the bayonet of a white soldier as he resisted his final arrest. His death was a blessing as the whites planned to ship him to Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas, a tiny prison atoll in Florida.
Unlike other popular authors, notably Stephen Ambrose, McMurtry resists the temptation to let his imagination roam too freely and sticks mostly to the known facts and reasonable deductions to be drawn from them. Those facts however immutably established Crazy Horse as perhaps the single most romantic and heroic figure of the great American Western epic. He lived free, defeated Custer, the great white romantic figure, and then died young "in the last moments when the Sioux could think of themselves as free. By an accident of fate, the man and the way of life died together...he came to be the symbol of Sioux freedom, Sioux courage, and Sioux dignity." (Page 17, hardcover edition)
Highly recommended for any reader with an interest in the American West.
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LibraryThing member NicholasPayne
I really like McMurtey's biography of Crazy Horse. He is less given to conjecture than was Stephen Ambrose and, where he doesn't know, he says so. A slight but lovely accounting of the life of a fascinating player in the American pageant.
LibraryThing member joeltallman
Larry McMurtry promises that there is very little in terms of concrete fact to learn about Crazy Horse, and that's just what you get. But the enigma somehow still translates into the legend, for some reason.
LibraryThing member xtien
The book is a biography of Native American Crazy Horse, but it's not written in the style of a classic biography. McMurtry spends a lot of pages on arguin with other biographers, stating that little is actually know about Craze Horse and that other biographers make assumptions that they cannot
I like McMurtry's style of writing, he has a refreshing view on the matter, and because he's a good writer, this book is a joy to read.
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prove.I like McMurtry's style of writing, he has a refreshing view on the matter, and because he's a good writer, this book is a joy to read.
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LibraryThing member NielsenGW
Larry McMurtry tries to wade through all the interviews, the conjectures, and the myths surrounding the life and death of the Native American warrior Crazy Horse only to find many gaps in the historical record. He does what he can with the supporting evidence, but where history gets hazy, he
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supplies the reader with a level-headed history of the many conflicts concerning the Plains Indians. His short narrative gives the reader a glimpse into life on the Greats Plains and just how sad many of the stories are. Show Less
LibraryThing member kvrfan
Because this is such a slight volume in size, a reader might think this would be a good introductory biography of Crazy Horse. While I thought it was an excellent book, it's really not for the uninitiated. Anyone who doesn't have at least a bare-bones knowledge of the outlines of Crazy Horse's life
In what really is not much more than an extended essay, McMurtry offers these insights:
1) The encounter between whites and Indians was a true clash of cultures. While it's clearly apparent the whites misunderstood the Indians, the Indians also misunderstood the whites. For one thing, Indians had no history of practicing genocide. When the US cavalry wiped out entire Indian villages, the Indians traumatized by the action. When Crazy Horse finally surrendered himself to the army, he had no idea that the whites were so dishonorable they would actually kill him. Crazy Horse was in fact perhaps more naive than many other chiefs because he purposely kept his distance from whites most of his life--other Indians who had had more experience in treaty negotiations, etc., knew how untrustworthy their counterparts could be.
2) While Crazy Horse certainly possessed many noble qualities, the reason he has become such a sainted figure in native memory (even called an "Indian Christ") is perhaps due to the fact that he was martyred right at a time when, meeting their defeat, the native population needed a hero to extol. If Crazy Horse had lived to a ripe old age, taking part in Wild West Shows or settling into reservation life, whatever his admirable exploits in earlier life, he would probably not be held in similar regard.
For those who have an interest in this period of American history, this is a very thoughtful book.
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and the Plains Indians wars that brought him to public attention might find himself at a loss. (A good book to provide such context is The Killing of Crazy Horse by Thomas Powers.)In what really is not much more than an extended essay, McMurtry offers these insights:
1) The encounter between whites and Indians was a true clash of cultures. While it's clearly apparent the whites misunderstood the Indians, the Indians also misunderstood the whites. For one thing, Indians had no history of practicing genocide. When the US cavalry wiped out entire Indian villages, the Indians traumatized by the action. When Crazy Horse finally surrendered himself to the army, he had no idea that the whites were so dishonorable they would actually kill him. Crazy Horse was in fact perhaps more naive than many other chiefs because he purposely kept his distance from whites most of his life--other Indians who had had more experience in treaty negotiations, etc., knew how untrustworthy their counterparts could be.
2) While Crazy Horse certainly possessed many noble qualities, the reason he has become such a sainted figure in native memory (even called an "Indian Christ") is perhaps due to the fact that he was martyred right at a time when, meeting their defeat, the native population needed a hero to extol. If Crazy Horse had lived to a ripe old age, taking part in Wild West Shows or settling into reservation life, whatever his admirable exploits in earlier life, he would probably not be held in similar regard.
For those who have an interest in this period of American history, this is a very thoughtful book.
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LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
A short form biography of the Sioux legend, whose life is, naturally, almost completely undocumented other than for the episodes in which he fought (or is thought to have fought) against the whites. As McMurtry points out, that fact hasn't prevented a good many historians from writing at length
Read and reviewed in 2015
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about Crazy Horse, primarily basing their texts on interviews with very old people who knew him or were present at his untimely and unconscionable death. McMurtry succinctly places Crazy Horse in the context of his life span, and leaves us with a portrait of an almost hermit-like man who nevertheless felt a great responsibility for his people, which was the motivation at last for him "coming in", surrendering to the Agency system in the belief that this was what was best for the people under his protection.Read and reviewed in 2015
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Subjects
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1999
Physical description
160 p.; 5.44 inches
ISBN
0670882348 / 9780670882342
Other editions
Crazy Horse: A Life (Penguin Lives Biographies) by Larry McMurtry (Paperback)