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Black Elk: The Life of an American Visionary
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About Black Elk: The Life Of An American Visionary
Product Description Winner of the PEN/Jacqueline Bograd Weld Award for Biography • Winner of the Society of American Historians Francis Parkman Prize • Winner of the Western Writers of America Spur Award for Best Western Biography • A Finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award for BiographyNamed One of the Best Books of the Year by True West (Best Biography) and The Boston GlobeBlack Elk is the definitive biographical account of a figure whose dramatic life converged with some of the most momentous events in the history of the American West. Born in an era of rising violence between the Sioux, white settlers, and U.S. government troops, Black Elk killed his first man at the Little Bighorn, witnessed the death of his second cousin Crazy Horse, and traveled to Europe with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. Upon his return, he was swept up in the traditionalist Ghost Dance movement and shaken by the Massacre at Wounded Knee. But Black Elk was not a warrior, instead accepting the path of a healer and holy man, motivated by a powerful prophetic vision that he struggled to understand.In Black Elk, Joe Jackson has crafted a true American epic, restoring to its subject the richness of his times and gorgeously portraying a life of heroism and tragedy, adaptation and endurance, in an era of permanent crisis on the Great Plains. Review "A comprehensive new biography of the fabled Sioux medicine man . . . [It] rattled me . . . [Black Elk's] fate was to survive a rolling catastrophe with eyes wide open, his luck also his curse." ―Walter Kirn, Harper's Magazine"Joe Jackson has expertly taken Black Elk’s life―as narrated by himself in the transcripts of his interviews with Neihardt―and woven that together with other records and histories of him and his times. The result is that Jackson has firmly situated Black Elk in the context of Indian struggles on the plains from 1850 through 1950. He uses Black Elk to bring home the radical changes that confronted most Indians during this time and, in doing so, creates a deeply felt and personal story of loss and change on the plains . . . the long set piece concerning the Battle of the Little Bighorn is among the very best I’ve ever read." ―David Treuer, The Washington Post"Remarkably thorough . . . Jackson’s deep research shows on every page, and his narrative skill makes this long biography a gripping, even thrilling read . . . In this book, he helps bring back a crucial American voice." ―Kate Tuttle, The Boston Globe"Black Elk stands out for its comprehensiveness, wide-ranging historical context, and the author's deftly apposite quotation from contemporary sources . . . In addition to seating Black Elk in his time and in the events he witnessed, Jackson gives a genuine sense of the inner man, the conflict in his soul between his Indian heritage and identity and his clear-sighted, hardnosed understanding of the compromises and capitulations necessary for his and the Lakota's survival . . . Drawing on immense research, Joe Jackson has given us the story of a man and a people whose land, way of life, and culture were the target of a concentrated project of extermination by the United States Government." ―Katherine A. Powers, Critical Mass, the blog of the National Book Critics Circle Board of Directors"Remarkably researched and beautifully told . . . Jackson gives us a modern man working his way through the obstacles of the 20th century . . . his research has rewards, shifting in subtle ways the stories we thought we knew." ―Ann Fabian, The National Book Review"An astonishingly rich saga . . . Jackson's biography works to represent 'the flesh-and-blood wicasa wakan' (holy man) . . . We see Black Elk balancing tradition and modernity, with fleeting but vivid scenes of him on a ferris wheel and in a movie house. We hear of struggles within subsequent generations over his legacy and Lakota identity more generally." ―Christine Bold, The Times Literary Supplement "With access to family members o
