In 1826 a seventeen-year-old Christopher "Kit" Carson ran away from his job as apprentice to a saddler in Franklin, Missouri and joined a merchant caravan bound for Santa Fe in the far Southwest. The flight marked his entry into the pages of history. In the decades that followed, Carson gained renown as a trapper, hunter, guide, rancher, army courier, Indian agent, and military officer. Along the way, his varied career as a frontiersman elevated him to the status of a national hero, on a par with Daniel Boone. In 1856, while at home with his family in Taos, New Mexico, Kit (being illiterate) dictated his autobiography, which dealt with the innumerable adventures he had experienced to that point. However, some of the most significant episodes in his life would unfold in the ensuing years, leading up to his death in 1868. Since Taos artist and writer Blanche Chloe Grant first edited and published the Carson manuscript in 1926, it has become the central source for all subsequent biographers. In 1935 Milo Milton Quaife annotated another edition under the title of "Kit Carson's Autobiography," published by Lakeside Press of Chicago, and afterward reprinted by the University of Nebraska Press. Western historian Harvey Lewis Carter followed suit with publication of the most heavily edited version yet, with his "'Dear Old Kit': The Historical Christopher Carson" (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 1968). Sunstone Press by electing to bring back into print Miss Grant's original 1926 book, regarded perhaps as the handiest of the three published versions, calls attention anew to this pioneering memoir of the celebrated Kit Carson.

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A young filmmaker attempts to understand his life by recording it on film, only to have his experiment turn into an alienating, voyeuristic obsession. One of the neglected milestones in contemporary film history, this legendary independent classic captures the state of mind and the state of the art in late 1960s America.

This is a new release of the original 1935 edition.

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As modest and undemonstrative as Kit's feats were remarkable, this account covers his activities as trapper, Indian fighter, guide, and buffalo hunter up to the autumn of 1856.

As modest and undemonstrative as Kit's feats were remarkable, this account covers his activities as trapper, Indian fighter, guide, and buffalo hunter up to the autumn of 1856.

"Notice is hereby given to all persons, that Christopher Carson, a boy about 16 years old, small of his age, but thick-set; light hair, ran away from the subscriber, living in Franklin, Howard County, Missouri, to whom he had been bound to learn the saddler's trade. . . . One cent reward will be given to any person who will bring back the said boy.'

This notice appeared in the Missouri Intelligencer of October 6, 1826, at about the same time that Kit Carson, in the humble role of "cavvy boy" in Bent's Santa Fe caravan, embarked upon his notable career. Thirty years later, a postgraduate of the University of the Wilderness, and for a decade past a national hero, he was persuaded to dictate to a literate friend his own story of his life to date.

The account--as modest and undemonstrative as Carson's feats were remarkable--covers his life as a trapper, Indian fighter, guide, and buffalo hunter up to the fall of 1856. Among the high spots during these years were his trapping expedition to California with Ewing Young (1829-1831), his celebrated duel with Shunar at the Green River rendezvous of 1837, the three expeditions with John C. Fremont (1842, 1843-1844, 1845), his exploits in the Mexican War (l846-1848), and his service as an Indian agent.