Christopher Carson, Familiarly Known as Kit Carson

by John S.C. Abbott

This book has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies and hence the text is clear and readable.

Genres: Biography, History, Westerns

168 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1873

About the author

John Stevens Cabot Abbott (Andover Theological Seminary; Bowdoin College, 1825) was a historian, Congregationalist pastor, and pedagogical writer. With his brothers, including Gorham and Jacob Abbott, he was a co-founder of Abbott Collegiate Institute for Young Ladies in New York City.

Reviews

[LouAnn Hoppe]

Lots of information about his life as a frontier man and Indian ventures and battles. Rather violent in places and has almost no information about his personal life and family. I would like to know more about how he lived the more quiet parts of his life.

[Ron Chinchen]

Certainly this is a worthy read for anyone wanting to know something about frontiersmen of the pre Civil War U.S. West period. Some very interesting descriptions of the country, the different peoples, the dangers, the tactics used to survive and just how hard a life it must have been for the hunters, Indians, Mexicans and settlers, such as the Mormons.

Another reviewer suggested the book is somewhat a succession of anecdotes following the intrepid hero of the piece, Kit Carson, on many of his expeditions into the wild. If there was fault, it was the author's obvious adulation for Carson, raising him almost to superhuman status, a paragon of virtue, a protector of the weak and vulnerable. I would suspect the man was a little less a 'Superman', though it seems he was certainly a remarkable individual.

I gained most from the author's descriptions of what must have been a startlingly beautiful, diverse and often rich landscape, the relationships with the various Indian tribes and Mexicans, the lifestyles and how these remarkable people survived what seem to be ongoing life threatening situations. For that reason I give this a 4 rating. A worthy education of those times.

[Daniel L Snider]

Written for greenhorns.

Carson was obviously a good man, an able scout and an experienced mountain man. The writer did some embellishing in his narrative, certainly meant for eastern dudes. But the history was fairly well written.

[Vince Pillig]

Very enlightening

This sheds a new light on what Hollywood does on TV and the movies . There's no comparison this seems much more accurate and more realistic to the time .

[Deacon Tom (Feeling Better)]

Very dry reading. Not much of a biography but just a collection of stories without unity.

[William Wright]

Much of it is bland, ledger-like. But when stories are detailed, they are excellent. Fascinating man.

[Gary]

True American hero

Good read from bygone Era, a true story of a great American that opened the country our forefathers. He was one that made America great!

[Boris]

Kit Carson was born December 24, 1809 in Kentucky. He became a trapper, hunter, explorer, guide, Indian lover and fighter.
This book is a collection of things that happened to him. He is pictured as a great man. I think he was.
He killed a lot of beavers, elk, buffalo and Indians. He helped the white man exploit the west and steal California from the Spaniards. I'll give you that. His story and stories like it are a major source of our obsession with guns. Kit had a respect for and affinity for the wilderness that the author tries to communicate in this biography.

There were a lot worse men who characterized the things we hate about U.S. westward expansion. An addendum to the book is a letter from William Goodyear, a trapper active in the 1850's describes a fight with some Indians.
"As our rifles could throw a bullet more than twice as far as any arrow could be thrown, the battle was rather as source of amusement to us, than of terror. No Indian could approach within arrow shot of our ranks, without meeting certain death. It must be confessed that we had no more compunctions in shooting an Indian than in shooting a bear or a wolf."

[William]

This is a reprint of a book written in the late 1800s by a well known biographer. It is decidedly not "politically correct" in reference to the nobel savages of the West. It describes Kit Carson in almost saint like terms. Still it is interesting and, if even partly true, certainly describes a person of remarkable abilities who got just about everywhere in the Western USA. Kind of fun to read such an account from soon after the the actual life of the man. I could tell that the author was at least a part time hell-fire preacher from some of his comments and prejudices. The book is disjointed and bounces around, but is roughly chronological. Worth a read but not at all profound.

[Stephen]

I love to go back and read of other times and other worlds and of how those men and women lived back then, and wonder how I myself would have coped without the gentleness of modern life. I guess another reason and the real beauty of reading these books , by good authors who are largely unbiased and unprejudiced (which are an uncommon find) is I feel that my eyes become more true and balanced to how folk truly were or at least were viewed. Kit Carson was one of life's legendry figures, a rare person of a rare time, gentle but heroically brave, a friend of all and of whom many Indians loved and an example in part to follow I guess. This was an enjoyable read

[Amy Griffith]

Good book but long and detailed. Only for readers very interested in the subject. Provides interesting details about frontier life. The author is clearly a huge fan of Carson, and I got the impression that the book may not be very balanced. Personal faults may have been glossed over or restated to make them look less bad.

[Randy C Witherspoon]

Good Read

I like the story line. He was detailed enough to make you feel like you were there. I was born and raised in north western New Mexico. I felt like was back home. I recommend this book for every one.

[Ann Clark]

First rate bio of kit carson

Scholarly writing by abbott is refreshing. Well described by a man of letters. Recommended highly. Would like to read other works by this author.

[Arthur E. Hish]

Nice narrative of a wonderful person who lived in the wild West.

While I have always enjoyed history, this is one of my first readings of a wild west personage. It was enjoyable to see what an admirable and disciplined man that Kit Carson certainly must have been.