Bitter Creek

by Dane Coolidge

Conned out of $20,000, Cal Watson, a prospector and mine owner, devises a clever, yet dangerous, scheme to win back his money and publicly humiliate the man who tricked him, which he soon discovers is no easy task. Reprint.

238 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 2004

About the author

Dane Coolidge was born in Natick, Massachusetts, on March 24, 1873. He was brought up in Riverside, California, and received his higher education at Stanford and Harvard Universities. From 1895 to 1900 he was a field collector of mammals, birds and reptiles in Nevada, Arizona and Southern California for a number of institutions, including Stanford University, the British Museum, U. S. National Zoological Park, and the U. S. National Museum in Italy and France. On July 30, 1906, he married Nary Roberts, and the couple eventually made their home in Berkeley, California. In 1910, his first novel, Hidden Water, was published, and this was followed by a long succession of novels and some non-fiction, with California and Southwest locales. He and his wife collaborated on two books, The Navajo Indians (1930) and The Last of the Seris (1939). In addition, Coolidge contributed short stories and illustrated articles to several magazines, including Youth's Companion, Sunset, Redbook, Harper's and Country Life in America. Mr. Coolidge died in 1940; Mrs. Coolidge, in 1945.

Reviews

[Brian Harrison · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the first book ever that I could not finish. I don't know what kind of vernacular this author was using, but I could not understand half of it. I got the jist of the storyline, but it was not enough to get me to force my way through this book.

I am used to some of the great western writers like Louis L'Amour, Zane Grey, and Larry McMurtry and this guy does not even come close.