Kit Carson's Autobiography

Rating:
Summary: A very good book that is well edited.
Review: Christopher Houston Carson was born in 1809 and was reared on the raw Missouri frontier sans a formal education. He was orphaned in childhood, apprenticed as a leather worker, and began his legendary career at the age of sixteen after running away from his employer. Carson joined a wagon train bound for New Mexico and embarked on a journey that spanned the opening of the American West through the subjugation of the Navajo nation.

Numerous books, including cheap dime novels, have been written about Kit Carson and his famed career. It's hard to separate the real Carson from the image honed by these writers over the many decades since his death. Kit Carson was described by a friend as "quiet and unassuming in all his actions...he had endured all imaginable hardships with a steady perserverance and unflinching courage." This is an apt description of Carson and a reading of this autobiography will reinforce that assessment.

Carson wasn't an impressive man: small, round shouldered, fair skinned, long in the body and short in the legs. His appearance was deceptive as he was the West's greatest free lance Indian fighter and the only Brigadier General in the U. S. Army who neither read nor could write anything beyond his own name. Carson was never cowed by his lack of education and consistently surpassed his contemporaries in every job he undertook.

It was in 1856, that Carson prompted by a desire to capitalize on his growing reputation dictated his life story and gave it to Jesse Turley to be used for their mutual benefit, Turley passed it on to Dr. DeWitt Peters who fleshed out Carson's efforts and published a 534 page biography in 1858 entitled, "The Life and Adventures of Kit Carson, The Nestor of the Rocky Mountains, From Facts Narrated by Himself."

There was much padding of an unrealistic nature that caused Carson to remark, upon having the book read to him, that he thought Dr. Peters, "had laid it on a leetle too thick." Until 1922, readers were unaware the actual Carson autobiography was a slim 138 pages, straightforward and unadorned, which unlike Peters' book rang with the truth of actual events. Carson's memory was remarkable even though he was somewhat confused and his chronology was in error in several instances.

Editor Quaiffe does an excellent job by supplementing Carson's account. This book is a reliable source although sketchy in pertinent details. Of all the adventurous fur trappers who roamed the frontier, only Kit Carson has become so widely known that he has achieved the status of a legend. This book covers Carson's life through 1856, so it doesn't encompass the highlights of his later career as an army officer, conqueror of the Navajo Nation, Indian agent, and so forth.

Carson was very subjective in selecting those events that would or would not appear in his autobiography. An unpleasant incident not mentioned occurred in 1846, with the Bear Flag Party in California. Carson and others captured Francisco and Ramon de Haro and their uncle, Jose de los Barreyesa. Carson was told by John C. Fremont, "I have no use for these prisoners. Do your duty." Carson construed this remark in its darkest sense and had them shot. Carson failed to mention his Arapaho wife Waa-nibe, Singing Wind, or their daughter. He also forgot his second wife Making Out Road, a Cheyenne, who divorced him Indian style. Carson later married 15 year old Maria Josefa Jaramillo, and they eventually had eight children.

Carson's narrative unknowingly indicts the allegedly benign California Mission System. A Padre from the San Rafael Mission asked him to recover Indians who had fled the mission. Carson chased, fought, and defeated fellow Indians who had sheltered the runaways. The remnants of the mission runaways were returned by Carson to San Rafael's peonage system. Carons's touted respect for Indians' rights is further suspect considering his plan to allow Utes to keep Navajos as slaves or to allow them to be sold to New Mexicans citizens as domestics or farm help. Carson's plan was vetoed.

The effectiveness of this book lies in its simplicity. Carson was famous in his lifetime yet modest about his accomplishments. There is little of the self-advertised showman in Carson; he was a bona-fide legend. There is less difference between the real Kit Carson and his legend than is usually the case with alleged frontier heroes as Buffalo Bill. Carson was a man with admirable qualities and more than a few reprehensible traits yet he was a giant among his peers - a person who inspired legends.

In 1860 while hunting in the San Juan Mountains of Colorado, Carson fell under his horse and rolled down a steep slope entangled in his reins. He was severely injured in his chest and never wholly recovered. He died in 1868, a month after his wife. They were transported from Colorado to Taos, New Mexico, and buried near Carson's old home.

Kit Carson was a true frontier icon imbued with mythical qualities and this autobiography supports the myth. There is little of Carson's dark side in this book which isn't unusual as sensitivity for the rights of others wasn't a prevailing trait in the 19th century. His story is interesting and slightly purified but the thoughts, actions, and results are pure Kit Carson.

Rating:
Summary: Kit explains it all!
Review: Disclaimer: Kit Carson is my first cousin, five times removed! And that's why I read this book.

It took a while to sink in, but the compelling feature about Kit's autobiography is the editing. There are extensive footnotes throughout that put Kit's text in historical perspective, point out errors in his memory, and round out the story.

He describes his 16-year life as a Mountain Man in almost monosyllabic terms. In other words, he compresses a whole year into a single paragraph. A short paragraph!

But it gets better when he has something to say about his scouting and Indian relations roles.

Why does it explain it all? Because I have this wanderlust locked up inside me, and I've always wondered where it came from!

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, But Too Short!
Review: Kit Carson was a man of few words in life and in his own autobiography. It is unfortunate that such a dynamic individual didn't write down more! Quaife does a terrific job with the notes. Explaining everything that Carson failed to include. This is a common problem as, for example, Kit Carson will say something to the effect: Fought indians today, and Quaife will fill in all of the details about what tribe, how many, who was killed or wounded in both parties, etc. I am fascinated by how much detail is known of Carson's time. Very readable, my only complaint was that it was too short! The editor has included a nicely laid out index. I found the book well worth the purchase price! BTW, for those of you looking for information on William F. Drannon, he is not mentioned anywhere in Carson's autobiography.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent, But Too Short!
Review: Kit Carson was a man of few words in life and in his own autobiography. It is unfortunate that such a dynamic individual didn't write down more! Quaife does a terrific job with the notes. Explaining everything that Carson failed to include. This is a common problem as, for example, Kit Carson will say something to the effect: Fought indians today, and Quaife will fill in all of the details about what tribe, how many, who was killed or wounded in both parties, etc. I am fascinated by how much detail is known of Carson's time. Very readable, my only complaint was that it was too short! The editor has included a nicely laid out index. I found the book well worth the purchase price! BTW, for those of you looking for information on William F. Drannon, he is not mentioned anywhere in Carson's autobiography.

Rating:
Summary: Straightforward autobiography
Review: Kit Carson was everywhere and did just about everything. I must agree with other reviewers and Milo Milton Quaife in his introduction, that because of Carson's nature, the book seems somewhat curtailed of descriptive events. What may have taken a few months to happen, Kit says it all in a paragraph. That aside, he came out west at the age of sixteen to become a mountain man. As time went by he was involved with trapping adventures, expeditions with Fremont, the Mexican War and as an Indian agent. Maybe it was a sign of the times, but Carson certainly does not hesitate to boast about how many Indians he killed during his day to day adventures. This may have been brought about by his upbringing as a young child. The settlers in his part of Missouri where he was living at the time had to "fort" themselves against the activities of hostile Indians. This may have carried on into adulthood. Nevertheless, this was a good book on an extraordinary and remarkable man of the early American west.