Men feared the myth. Women loved the man. — From the back of the book: — This is Kit Carson, the man behind the myth... — A hard drinker, a fierce fighter, a man of relentless action. Alone, he explored a wilderness as wild and untamed as the grizzlies who roamed at his side. Single-handedly, he charted the merciless wilderness that lay just beyond the horizon. He was a man who survived with his knife and gun, who loved too often and too well, who gave to quarter and asked none. A man who took scalps like a warrior and won hearts like a gentleman. A man tuned to the rush of water, the hoot of an owl, the cry of a coyote. Pioneer, lover, soldier, father, killer, mountain man—a legend in his own time—Kit Carson was known throughout the West as a man of courage and strength, a man equal to the challenges of a land that offered no mercy.