A Wounded Thing Must Hide; In Search of Libbie Custer

A Wounded Thing Must Hide: In Search of Libbie Custer by Jeremy Poolman   320 pages

I’m not sure where I learned of this book, but I was so excited to get my hands on it. I’m not at all familiar with General George Armstrong Custer’s wife, Elizabeth Bacon Custer.

The prologue, titled “Ghosts in the Park,” was wonderful. It begins with Libbie’s death in 1933, four days short of her 91^st birthday. It was in the parlor of Libbie’s New York home that the author learned fist learned about the woman, standing in the spot where she stood, watching the sun slip between the buildings and sipping tea from her Dresden china.  Beautiful writing. A little unclear about somethings, but I figured they’d be explained in coming chapters.

Alas, that was not to be. I’m not sure exactly what Poolman was writing about, but it wasn’t Libbie Custer. I “think” it was his search for her; going place where she went, making up conversations she probably had. Poolman has recently lost his wife, Karen, to cancer, and became obsessed with Mrs. Custer.

I couldn’t make heads or tails of what Poolman was writing about. There was a scene in the beginning about the Mayflower and the moving of Plymouth Rock that I couldn’t figure out what that had to do with Libbie Custer. That was the way the rest of the book read.

I give this biography/memoir 0 out of 5 stars.