Kit Carson's Long Walk and Other True Tales of Old San
Diego. By Henry Schwartz. La Mesa, California: Associated Creative Writers, 1980.
112 pages. $3.95.
This is a collection of thirteen fascinating articles about
colorful historic figures of San Diego's Old Town. The narratives include an
account of Kit Carson's long walk to San Diego following the Battle of San
Pasqual, the romance and elopement of Henry Delano Fitch and Josefa Carrillo,
and Helen Hunt Jackson's visits to San Diego and her writing of Ramona. Such
other San Diego personalities as Agoston Haraszthy, George Derby, and Mary
Walker are discussed. Because of the absence of an index, footnotes, and a
bibliography, the book will have limited appeal to serious scholars, but it will
find a wide audience among local history buffs.
