An Obituary for Major Reno [Hardcover]

Richard S. Wheeler (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 11, 2004

Major Marcus Reno is a controversal figure, a man accused of being responsible for the worst disaster ever to befall the army of the United States. He had been one of George Armstrong Custer's senior officers when Custer and over 200 men in his command were annihilated by Sioux and Cheyenne warriors above the Little Big Horn River in Montana Territory.
While declared by his superiors innocent of wrong-doing in the terrible battle, Marcus Reno's honor -the most precious word in his vocabulary - was blackened in the press and by his fellow officers and other Custer idolators.

For thirteen years Reno has lived with this stain on his reputation. Now, with time running out, suffering from painful cancer, Reno wants his honor restored. He arranges to give a final newspaper interview to New York Herald correspondent Joseph Richler. Richler, captivated by this officer and gentleman, promises the dying Major that he will write the whole story of Reno's conduct in battle and its aftermath.
Richler learns that Reno was tortured by the death of his beloved wife, hell-bent toward self-destruction by alcohol, and plagued by a peculiar dual personality -- decisive and in control on the battlefield, yet unable to win the respect of his fellow officers.

In An Obituary for Major Reno, Richard S. Wheeler, a master of the biographical novel, provides a brilliant reconstruction of the Custer battle and Marcus Reno's subsequent courts martial for "conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman," and brings to life a beleaguered man and his search to restore his lost honor.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Spur Award–winning western writer Wheeler (The Exile) once again takes a dramatic historical event and tells the story from an unusual and controversial viewpoint, this time chronicling Custer's last stand from the perspective of Maj. Marcus Reno, one of Custer's senior officers. History condemned Reno for failing to come to Custer's aid on the day of the massacre in Montana in 1876, although eyewitness accounts and an official court of inquiry proved the fault was Custer's, not Reno's. In 1889 Reno is dying of cancer, a disgraced and broken man who wants only to regain his honor. He grants a last interview to Joseph Richler, a newspaper reporter with the New York Herald, hoping to finally tell his side of the story. Richler doubts Reno will be able to add anything new to the well-publicized account and is surprised to find that he not only likes the unlikable Reno, but that he believes him, too. Richler then wonders why so many people vilified the man who actually saved half of Custer's company. His investigation reveals treachery, professional jealousy, scapegoating hysteria and an army culture of heroic death. Although some might call this revisionist history, it is also compelling fiction, a fresh, insightful and compassionate tale of a tragic figure.
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Review

"Wheeler is a master storyteller.. whose many tales of the Westward Movement...weaves fact, fiction, and folklore into pure entertainment." --Library Journal

"A riveting re-creation of the tragic final years of an American legend."
- Booklist on Eclipse

"Wheeler brings readers a stunningly told and hitherto incomplete story of the tragic final chapter in the life of Meriwether Lewis, one of American history's most famous and lasting characters." -The Denver Post on Eclipse

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Forge Books; 1st edition (November 11, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765307081
• ISBN-13: 978-0765307088
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.6 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #859,138 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Richard Wheeler began a late-in-life career as a novelist at age fifty, and by his seventy-fifth year had written seventy novels. He began life as a newsman and later became a book editor, but turned to fiction full time in 1985.

He started by writing traditional westerns but soon was writing large-scale historical novels and then biographical novels. In recent years he has been writing mysteries as well, some as Axel Brand. His Lieutenant Joe Sonntag series occurs in 1940s Milwaukee, and focuses on life in a big, smoky industrial city just after World War Two.

He has won numerous awards, including the Owen Wister Award for lifetime achievement in the literature of the American West, and also six Spur Awards from Western Writers of America. He has received more Spur Awards than any other living author.

He grew up in Wisconsin and migrated West, holding newspaper jobs in Phoenix, Oakland, Carson City, and Billings. His wife, Sue Hart, is an English professor at Montana State University in Billings.

He has been focusing more and more on biographical novels. One of these, published in March, 2010, is called Snowbound, and is about the explorer John C. Fremont's tragic fourth expedition. It won a Spur Award.


For a quarter of a century he's largely made his living from writing fiction. That reality astonishes him. In his mid-seventies now, he is still dreaming up new stories.

Note: There are other Richard Wheelers writing books. One is an historian of the Civil War, and another writes histories of the Marine Corps, and another is a social scientist. Richard S. Wheeler is the novelist.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And it reads beautifully, May 30, 2005

By 

Nancy H. Rathke "oldmoo" (Madison, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: An Obituary for Major Reno (Hardcover)

Not only is this a fascinating treatment of the Battle at Little Big Horn (I had visited the battlefield three times but never understood the action well until I read the book) but the narrative and the speech of the characters flow with a naturalness that must be difficult to create. The story engrossed me throughout, despite the unlikability of Major Reno, and I never found that, at any point, it became implausible. It's a very human story about a legend that has now grown out of control.

5.0 out of 5 stars Absorbing character study, August 10, 2010

By 

Ronald Scheer "rockysquirrel" (Los Angeles) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Obituary for Major Reno (Tom Doherty Associates Books) (Mass Market Paperback)

This well researched historical novel gives an account of Major Marcus Reno, one of the commanding officers with Custer at Little Bighorn. The loss of Custer and the scale of the defeat led almost immediately to finger pointing, and Reno found himself to blame. The charges were unfair and unfounded. But the mixture of character flaws and weaknesses in an otherwise commendable officer led to his eventual discharge from the Cavalry. He spent the rest of his life trying to regain his lost honor.

Wheeler takes on the task of providing a fair appraisal of the man, giving us a warts-and-all portrayal. A large section of the book is dedicated to the 7th Cavalry's search across the prairies of Montana for the Indian bands they were to encounter at the Little Bighorn. More is devoted to an account of the battle itself, from Reno's point of view. The second half of the book concerns his fall from grace, and it is sometimes a painful journey.

There's a lot to put into this story of a complex and contradictory man. Wheeler keeps you turning pages, shaking your head sometimes at Reno's poor judgment, sympathetic with him at others for how fate and circumstances turn against him. You read to the end before finding some resolution for your mixed feelings. Wheeler's book belongs on the bookshelf of battles set at key points in history. It cuts through the myth while revealing how myths come to be.

3 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Wasted Opportunity, March 2, 2006

By 

Kevin M. Derby (Florida) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: An Obituary for Major Reno (Hardcover)

Marcus Reno ranks as one of the most interesting and tragic figures from the Little Big Horn campaign. His tale should be an interesting one. Richard Wheeler's novel on Reno does not take full advantage of a fascinating subject and that is what proves frustrating about this book. Wheeler sets the stage well. The first few chapters where a reporter interacts with a dying Reno are excellent. Once the novel turns to the Little Big Horn campaign, the book seems rushed. The familiar events of the campaign are replayed but, to be quite frank, the drama seems lacking. The urgency of Reno's desperate fight can not be found in Wheeler's book. Even the terror of Reno being splattered with the blown brains, blood and skull fragments of one of the chief scouts of the 7th cavalry is neatly put in a sentence or two. The endless array of courtmartials and Reno's downfall also seems rushed. Wheeler certainly has strengths as a writer and these include his solid use of secondary characters, preserving their historic integrity while still offering them important roles in the book. He does an excellent job with Godfrey, Benteen and General Terry. The Custers hover in the background and it would have been interesting to see Wheeler give them a greater role. Based on his use of Terry and Benteen, I suspect Wheeler would have done a fine job with George and Libby. But Reno himself, at least as Wheeler presents him, is not the type of character that a novel should be based around. At the start and end of the novel, Wheeler, through Reno and later in his brother in law, maintains that the early death of Reno's first wife explains much of his character. The problem is Wheeler tells his readers this and does not show them. This is a book that frankly could have used a few more chapters to flesh out Reno and the events that led to his tragedy.