Little Big Man Chapter Summary & Analysis | Foreword by a Man of Letters

Foreword by a Man of Letters Summary

The fictional author, Ralph Fielding Snell, writes the foreword to the story. In the forward, Ralph tells how he comes to know Jack Crabb, a frontiersman and adopted Cheyenne who also claims to be the sole White survivor of the Battle of Little Bighorn, or Custer's Last Stand. Ralph first hears of Jack through Ralph's nurse, Mrs. Winifred Burr, who is an irritant to Ralph in many ways. She brings Ralph to protest when she dons an antique Indian war bonnet that might have been owned by Crazy Horse. She replaces the bonnet in its display cabinet and proceeds to tell Ralph about an old man who tells stories about his experiences in the Old West.

Mrs. Burr does not know the exact name of this old man, and Ralph's attempts at finding him are fruitless until the old man, Jack Crabb, writes a letter to Ralph. In the letter,...
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