KIT CARSON. The Happy Warrior of the Old West. The Riverside Library.

by Stanley Vestal

Classic account of the life and exploits of Kit Carson. Vestal was the pseudonym of Walter Stanley Campbell. 297 pages. Riverside Library release.

Unknown Binding

First published January 1, 1928

About the author

Walter Stanley Vestal

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanley...

Reviews

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

There are plenty of books about the Old West generally and Kit Carson specifically. I picked up this one in part because of a line from the author's introduction. Vestal, like Carson, lived among Indian tribes and had a connection to the Old West. He knew that crowd was slipping away, and he feared that future books would lack the first person perspective. "For before long there will be no one left who has talked face to face with [Carson's] contemporaries, no one left who knows what a tepee smells like, or how a beaver trap was set, no one to make real the background out of which [Carson's] adventures grew, and against which they must be seen." I hoped to gain that perspective from Vestal's book.

For the most part, it was a good read. I appreciated the personal anecdotes that are peppered through out the text. Native Americans were quoted almost as much as white men. Still, Vestal didn't escape his time. He frequently referred to Native Americans as "redskins," for example. He seemed to let his opinions color the story of Kit Carson. He painted Kit as a hero for "conquering' the Navajo and burning their orchards--an act many considered his most vengeful and unethical. However, he also included Kit's condemnation of military officials for killing Native women and children. Vestal, like Carson, was clearly a mixed bag.

The book is worth reading, and it offers more perspective on a lost era. It does, however, have its limits.

[Tom Stevens]

Interesting read, with vernacular throughout. The final attack on the Apaches didn't have any context or explanation, so hoping to get more details when I read the book published after the 1930s.