Guns, Guts & Glory

LARRY MCMURTRY’S CUSTER PICKS

1. Son of the Morning Star (Evan S. Connell; North Point Press): One of the few masterpieces to come out of the West.

2. Little Big Man (Thomas Berger; Dial Press): A neglected book, worthy of a serious read.

3. My Life on the Plains (George Armstrong Custer; Applewood Books): An attentive reading reveals the man’s serious defects of character.

4. The Last Stand: Custer, Sitting Bull and the Battle of the Little Big Horn (Nathaniel Philbrick; Penguin Books): A competent updating of Custer.

We couldn’t get a number 5 pick from Larry, because, as his writing partner Diana Ossana kindly relayed to us, “He only has four books about Custer he truly admires.”

—Larry McMurtry, the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Lonesome Dove, has just released Custer (Simon & Schuster)