During those years, she claimed to have received over a thousand rejection slips for her short stories. Despite her lack of a high school diploma, she managed to enroll at the University of Nebraska, thanks to a sympathetic dean. Early writings įor the next sixteen years, Mari held a variety of low-paying jobs, while writing-to almost no success-under her married name, Marie Macumber. She was unhappy in the marriage, and in 1919, citing 'extreme mental cruelty,' divorced her husband and moved to Lincoln. At the age of eighteen, Sandoz married a neighboring rancher, Wray Macumber. She taught in nearby country schools without ever attending high school. She graduated from the eighth grade at the age of 17, secretly took the rural teachers' exam, and passed. Her childhood was spent in hard labor on the home farm, and she developed snow blindness in one eye after a day spent digging the family's cattle out of a snowdrift. Her father was said to be a violent and domineering man, who disapproved of her writing and reading. Until the age of 9, she spoke only German.

Marie Susette Sandoz was born on near Hay Springs, Nebraska, the eldest of six children born to Swiss immigrants, Jules and Mary Elizabeth (Fehr) Sandoz. She became one of the West's foremost writers, and wrote extensively about pioneer life and the Plains Indians. Mari Susette Sandoz (– March 10, 1966) was a Nebraska novelist, biographer, lecturer, and teacher.

Crazy horse by mari sandoz