Johnston McCulley

The Mark of Zorro was originally entitled The Curse of Capistrano. It was the first work to feature the California character Diego Vega, the masked hero also called Zorro. Zorro is the Spanish word for fox....

1820s California, in a bygone era of sprawling haciendas and haughty caballeros, suffers beneath the whip of oppression....

The heroic and honorable Zorro, an ace with a whip and a demon with a sword, fights for the poor and oppressed - a far cry from effete, young Don Diego....

This is a story of a valiant man who became a sort of American version of Robin Hood. His efforts were a courageous attempt to restore justice in early 19th-century Mexican California, where a corrupt governor was viciously exploiting the poor and downtrodden....