author
Col. J. M. Travers
Remembered as the name behind a vivid frontier adventure, this little-known writer is associated today with a single surviving dime-novel style tale about Custer and the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Very little biographical information has been confirmed, which only adds to the book's pulp-era mystery.
1 Audiobook
Custer's Last Shot; or, The Boy Trailer of the Little Horn
by Col. J. M. Travers
About the author
Project Gutenberg lists Col. J. M. Travers as the author of Custer's Last Shot; or, The Boy Trailer of the Little Horn, and that work appears to be the main reason the name remains in circulation today. The novel is a fast-moving historical adventure set around one of the best-known events of the American West, written in the dramatic, sensational style that was popular with young readers and mass-market fiction audiences.
Reliable biographical details about Travers are hard to confirm. In fact, the scarcity of trustworthy records suggests that the name may have been a house name or pen name, something that was common in popular fiction publishing of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Because the record is so thin, it is safest to focus on the surviving work rather than make stronger claims about the person behind the byline.
For modern readers, Travers is best approached as part of the world of old adventure fiction: brisk storytelling, frontier danger, and a romanticized view of western history. Even with so little known about the author, the book offers a window into the reading tastes and publishing habits of its era.