Dane Coolidge's Hidden Water is a vigorous early twentieth-century Western concerned with land, survival, and moral testing in the arid borderlands of the American Southwest. Centered on the struggle for water, grazing rights, and human allegiance, the novel transforms the desert from a mere backdrop into an active force shaping character and conflict. Coolidge writes in a direct, pictorial style, blending frontier romance with close observation of animals, terrain, ranch labor, and the codes of honor that govern isolated communities. In literary context, the book belongs to the realist-leaning Western tradition that complicated dime-novel adventure with ecological and social detail. Coolidge was unusually well equipped to write such a novel. Born in Massachusetts in 1873, he became known not only as a fiction writer but also as a naturalist, photographer, and student of Western life. His travels through Arizona, California, and the wider desert Southwest gave him firsthand knowledge of mining camps, ranches, Native landscapes, and contested resources. That intimacy with place informs Hidden Water at every level. Readers interested in Western fiction that is both dramatic and observant will find Hidden Water rewarding. It offers romance and danger, but also a serious meditation on scarcity, possession, and endurance in a harsh environment. This enriched edition has been carefully crafted to add value to your reading experience. - Hand-picked Memorable Quotes shine a spotlight on moments of literary brilliance. - Interactive footnotes clarify unusual references, historical allusions, and archaic phrases for an effortless, more informed read.

This carefully crafted ebook: "HIDDEN WATER" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents.
Excerpt:
"After many long, brooding days of sunshine, when the clean-cut mountains gleamed brilliantly against the sky and the grama grass curled slowly on its stem, the rain wind rose up suddenly out of Papaguería and swooped down upon the desolate town of Bender, whirling a cloud of dust before it; and the inhabitants, man and horse, took to cover. New-born clouds, rushing out of the ruck of flying dirt, cast a cold, damp shadow upon the earth and hurried past; white-crested thunder-caps, piling-up above the Four Peaks, swept resolutely down to meet them; and the storm wind, laden with the smell of greasewood and wetted alkali, lashed the gaunt desert bushes mercilessly as it howled across the plain...."
Dane Coolidge (1873-1940) was a prolific author of western novels and Indian tales.