Water of Life

by Henry Morton Robinson

It began with Chance Woodhull -- a pioneer farmer in Indiana, a home-steader who could do everything that needed to be done, superlatively. And one of those things was to make whiskey each September -- a barrel from ten bushels of surplus corn. It was good whiskey and he passed his skill on to his sons. But he could not foresee in those golden days on the frontier, just before the Civil War, what effect his teaching would have on the lives of his children and his children's children. Water of Life is his story and theirs -- a huge portrait in action of American people and places. In its inspired storytelling of three American generations, it covers the full scope of man's posibilities for good and evil and the battles that each generation must fight for itself.

Genres: Historical Fiction, Fiction

Hardcover

Published January 1, 1901

Reviews

[Jim Puskas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A highly entertaining and colorful story of life in 19th and early 20th century America, from the exploits of rugged frontiersmen to the rough-and-tumble of the big cities with their gangsters in the era of prohibition. The making, marketing and consumption of whiskey (at least in its American manifestation) remains a background theme, but it's really a story about people, families, love and loss, triumph and tragedy -- the essence of life. Robinson has populated his tale with a number of fascinating characters, many of them admirable, others despicable but none of them commonplace or tiresome.