Elinor Wilson, who grew up in Trinidad, Colorado, ?at the foot of the equestrian statue of Kit Carson, ? searched out every scrap of information available to her to prove that Jim Beckwourth was certainly no liar, but was, instead, a man of towering physical strength, indomitable courage, excellent judgment, and without peer in his knowledge of Indian ways. Mr. Wilson, a professional writer, was a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley.