As Variety film critic Cecelia Ager once wrote: “There ought to be a statue erected, or a Congressional Medal awarded, or a national holiday proclaimed, to honor that great woman, Margaret Dumont, the dame who takes the raps from the Marx Brothers. For she is of the stuff of which our pioneer women were made, combining in her highly indignant Duse, stalwart oak, and Chief Fall Guy—a lady of epic ability to take it, a lady whose mighty love for Groucho is a saga of devotion, a lady who asks but little gets it.” Thankfully, there is now STRAIGHT LADY by Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian to properly celebrate the underrated Margaret Dumont. Chris has such a gift for telling fascinating tales about fascinating women, but this is my favorite. Delightful surprises in store for the fortunate reader. Marx Brothers’ and MGM fans are going to love this book!

Michael Troyan, MGM; HOLLYWOOD’S GREATEST BACKLOT

This reviewer owns countless books on Custer and the battle at the Little Big Horn. Some are well researched. Some are well written. Few enjoy both qualities. “The Widowed Ones” scores ten in both respects.

It also presents an entirely new angle to the oft done subject matter. In other words, this is the best Custer book ever for the casual reader and the jaded western researcher.  Bravo! Chris Enss. She, in collaboration with Howard Kazanjian and Chris Kortlander, gives a stunning and emotionally charged view of the women that were left behind after the historic loss of George Custer’s command in 1876.

The book weaves its way through the devastation wrought upon Libby Custer and the widowed wives of the men that wore the blue of the 7th Cavalry.  Enss and Kazanjian do a terrific job detailing the women’s handling of loss; not only their husband’s demise, but also the pain of official criticism aimed to besmirch their loved ones, and their grappling with getting on with their lives without any apparent means.  The path Libby et. al. took is detailed in “The Widowed Ones”, an insightful glimpse of how the survivors cope, or don’t.  Each reader can measure their grit and resolute devotion to their fallen husbands.  It is a marvelous story.  Enss and company have filled in a neglected hole in one of the West’s greatest historical events.  If you are restricted to one last book purchase, this is the one.

Columnist, Scott Dyke  Green Valley News  Green Valley, Arizona

The Battle of Little Bighorn or the Battle of Greasy Grass, the climax of the Great Sioux War of 1876, is remembered for the resounding, bloody defeat of U.S. forces (led by Lt. General George Armstrong Custer) by Lakota Sioux, Northern Cheyenne, and Arapaho warriors. Enss and co-author Howard Kazanjian (who together wrote None Wounded, None Missing, All Dead: The Story Of Elizabeth Bacon Custer), and their collaborator Chris Kortlander (founder of Montana’s Custer Battlefield Museum) examine this well-studied battle (part of the U.S. theft of Plains Indian lands in the Black Hills of present-day South Dakota) through the lens of Gen. Custer’s widow Elizabeth Custer and six other widows of Custer’s U.S. 7th Cavalry officers, focusing on how the widows processed their grief and attempted to rebuild their lives.

Drawing on never-before-seen archival material from the Elizabeth Custer Library and Museum in Garryowen, MT, (particularly correspondence among the seven widows, and between the widows and U.S. politicians, military leaders, and soldiers), Enss and Kazanjian recount how it fell to Elizabeth Custer to break the news of the massacre to the officers’ wives. In the years following, she kept in contact with many of them while answering reams of correspondence and defending her husband’s honor and conduct during the battle. Enss and Kazanjian write that some of the widows struggled with debilitating grief and were unable to process their husband’s fates, while others set out to secure government jobs to supplement meager U.S. army pensions.

VERDICT: Readers interested in 19th-century, women’s and military history will be drawn into this thoroughly humane and sympathetic treatment of U.S. army widows.

“Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian’s inspiring book, The Widowed Ones is a compelling history text focused on women’s experiences following the Battle of the Little Bighorn.  Clarion Rating: 5 out of 5”

Foreword Clarion Review

Enter now to win a copy of

The Widowed Ones:  Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn

Seventh Cavalry officers’ wives who lost their spouses at the Battle of the Little Bighorn survived the ordeal because of the friendship they had with one another.  No one else could understand their grief or help them get past the tremendous hurt.  The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian tells the stories of these women and the unique bond they shared.

Using never-before-seen materials from the Elizabeth Custer Library and Museum in Garryowen, Montana, including letters to and from politicians and military leaders to the widows, fellow soldiers, and critics of General George Armstrong Custer to the widows, and letters between the widows themselves about when the women first met, the men they married, and their attempts to preserver after the tragedy, Enss and Kazanjian share the tale of these stalwart women.

During the first year after the tragic event, the press sought the widows out to learn how they were coping, what plans they had for future, and what, if anything, they knew about the battle itself.  The widows were able to soldier through the scrutiny because they had one another.  They confided in each other, cried without apologizing, and discussed their desperate financial situations.

The Widowed Ones: Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn by Chris Enss and Howard Kazanjian will be released in June 2022.  The title will be available wherever books are sold and through the National Book Network.

Early Reviews

“Once or twice in a lifetime comes a meticulously researched book that so radically changes your understanding of a historical event it is as though the scales fall from your eyes and you actually see what happened for the first time.  The Widowed Ones. Beyond the Battle of the Little Bighorn is that book.    Listen to the women’s side of the story.  We promise you will never be the same.”

Michael Gear and Kathleen O’Neal Gear  New York Timesbestselling authors ofDissolution and The Ice Orphan  

 “The rigor of the scholarly research on display here is quite simply astonishing, as the authors seem to leave no stone unturned.  This is a perspicacious study that not only captures these particular women’s plights, but also an age in which independence for women came with extensive difficulties.”

Kirkus Review