Sandoz, Mari

Sandoz, Mari (Marie Susette) (m. Macumber) (1901–66) writer, historian; born in Sheridan County, Nebr. The daughter of Swiss emigrants, she grew up on the family ranch, and lost the use of an eye due to snow-blindness when 15. After completing the eighth grade, she skipped high school and became a teacher. She briefly attended a business school, and studied intermittently at the University of Nebraska (1922–31). She researched the history of the Sioux Indians, and was an editor of historical periodicals (1927–35). After settling in New York City, she still maintained her ties to the family ranch. She is noted as a biographer, novelist, and historian whose work usually drew on the life of the Great Plains. Cheyenne Autumn (1953) and The Cattlemen: From the Rio Grande across the Far Marias (1958) are two of her best-known nonfiction works; Miss Morissa (1955) and The Horsecatcher (1956) are among her most admired novels.