Crazy Horse: A Life
Crazy Horse: A Life is a 1999 American biography by Larry McMurtry about the Lakota leader Crazy Horse. It’s a short, easy-to-read life of the person. McMurtry was asked to write about General Custer but chose Crazy Horse instead. He began writing after a period of writer’s block that followed heart bypass surgery. A Wall Street Journal profile said he found his writing voice again once he started the book, and he wrote by longhand. New York Times critic Peter Aykroyd said Crazy Horse is a figure trapped in a history he did not fully understand, so the story must rely on guesses rather than complete facts. McMurtry is strong at the quieter moments and suggests that misunderstandings between white settlers and Native Americans helped start informal warfare. The book presents an apparently objective story but also shows hints of the novelist in the biographer.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 08:49 (CET).