In the Spirit of Crazy Horse (signed By the Author on the Half-Title Page)

New York; (1983): The Viking Press. First Edition. Octavo. Signed by the author on the half-title.628 pages, index. Peter Matthiessen describes the case he treats in this book as ''one of the most complex and interesting trials of our time.'' That may possibly be true. Elsewhere, he compares it to the trial of Sacco and Vanzetti. That too may very well be valid. The book became the object of a libel suit by David Price, an FBI agent. After the first copies (such as then copy) were ordered, they were withdrawn by the publisher, the public outcry was to read it. Finally, then Viking and Matthiessen won the suit, the book was reissued in 1989 and is considered one of the most accurate details of what the life was like of the Indians on the South Dakota reservations. He also declared that the Governor of South Dakota, William J. Janklow was a racist and a rapist. The Circuit Court refused to block the book, but the South Dakota Supreme Court did. Since the book claimed the maltreatment of the Indians, particularly in Wounded Knee, were rooted in racism and an attempt to suppress dissent, its band lasted nearly six years. Laid in is a four page pamphlet on Leonard Peltier which sites the book, the work of Vine Deloria, Jr., and the film Incident a Oglala. It appeals for funds to the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee and to the follow major government officials, President Clinton, Attorney General Jane Reno, and John McCain who was then the Director of Commerce on Indian Affairs. Also laid in is a newspaper clipping from 1984 that records the sentencing of Dennis Banks in 1984 for the 1973 riot at the Custer County courthouse. Bound in 1/4 brown cloth over orange paper covered boards, spine lettering gilt, a very minute bump to one corner, nearly fine in fine unclipped dust jacket.