"IMPORTANT TO CUSTER'S GROWING LEGEND": FIRST EDITION OF ELIZABETH CUSTER'S FOLLOWING THE GUIDON, 1890

(CUSTER, George A.) CUSTER, Elizabeth B. Following the Guidon. New York: Harper & Brothers, 1890. Octavo, original pictorial green cloth. $850.

First edition of Elizabeth Custer's third and final book about General Custer—"a shining image of her dead husband"—containing frontispiece and 13 full-page illustrations, a splendid copy in original cloth.

Elizabeth Custer was undoubtedly one of the strongest forces in rehabilitating her husband's reputation after his death at Little Big Horn. Following the Guidon, her third and final biography of General Custer, is "important to Custer's growing legend… a shining image of her dead husband" (Hutton, Custer Reader, 400). Elizabeth Custer was determined that her husband would not be known as a failed leader or, worse, a blunderer. Thus, she set forth to rewrite his story and, in doing so, to turn him into the Western hero and martyr that he is often seen as today. Following the Guidon, written in the first person, "describes their marriage and [his] experiences in the Civil War and subsequent Indian campaigns" (ANB). With frontispiece and 13 full-page illustrations. Rear leaf of publisher's advertisements. Rader 1008.

A fine copy.