This text was obtained via automated optical character recognition.
It has not been edited and may therefore contain several errors.

---

HIS FAMOUS FRIENDS
From his small studio in Gentilly, he leads a life of high adventure ? charging with Custer, communing with Crazy Horse and forging the fate of Europe with Ike.
Story by GREGORY ROBERTS Photographs by G. ANDREW BOYD
When Stephen E. Ambrose writes a biography, he dreams about his subject every night, without fail. For years, he dreamed about Dwight D. Eisenhower. He has dreamed about George Armstrong Custer and Crazy Horse hundreds of times. And for the past six months, he's been visited constantly in his sleep by Richard M. Nixon.
"He's a terrible man to live with.? Ambrose says of his current fixation. "Just awful. He really is sleazy. He really is exactly what people think: the most corrupt man we ever had in high office in this country.?
Ambrose?s obsession with his subjects extends beyond his sleeping psyche. His wife, Moira, says he even behaved more Ike-like ? more careful, more conservative ? during his years on the monumental two-part Eisenhower biography, which culminated in September with publication of the second volume. And he cut his silvery hair short for the work, which together with his high forehead gave him a distinctly Eisenhoweresque appearance.
Ten years ago. he grew his hair shoulder length while writing his dual biography of Crazy Horse and Custer. He braided it for the Crazy Horse sections and let it hang free for the Custer passages. He also took to wearing buckskin, cutting a dramatic figure at UNO. where he teaches history.
"I wore cowboy boots for about four years." Ambrose says of his Wild West phase. "They damn near killed me. You have to be born with the damn things.
"But I wore them. I persisted in it. It's just part of getting into the character for me.
"I try very hard to put myself in the shoes of whomever I?m writing about.? he says. "How did it feel at that moment in time? What kind of thoughts did the man have?
"I've spent a lot of time studying Meriwether Lewis, tramping over the Lewis and Clark Trail. I've spent a lot of time studying Ike, tramping over World War II battlefields.
Ambrose named his uniting studio after his most famous subject.
November 25, 1984 DIXIE /II