Shadow Mountain

Dane CoolidgeProject Gutenberg · United StatesDec 2019

3.1

Word count: 401K words
Chapters: 41

Summary

Project Gutenberg was the first provider of free electronic books, or eBooks. Michael Hart, founder of Project Gutenberg, invented eBooks in 1971 and his memory continues to inspire the creation of eBooks and related technologies today. Shadow Mountain by Dane Coolidge. Author: Coolidge, Dane, 1873-1940. Language: English. Class: PS: Language and Literatures: American and Canadian literature. Release Date: Dec 1, 2009

Editor's review

Shadow Mountain is a novel by American author Dane Coolidge (1873–1940). It belongs to the category of American and Canadian literature and is released by Project Gutenberg as a free eBook. Coolidge wrote throughout his career against the backdrop of the American Southwest, and this work continues that strongly regional narrative vein. It will appeal to readers interested in early American Western themes. As a public-domain eBook, its value lies chiefly in the availability of the text: readers can access the language style, scene setting, and character construction of early twentieth-century American popular fiction at no cost, and can also treat it as a sample of the Western narrative conventions of the period. A caveat: this is the original English edition, and the book dates from an early era, so its narrative pacing and diction are distant from contemporary fiction. Read it with a literary-historical perspective rather than expecting a modern genre novel with a strong plot. It suits light reading in the original English, or as a supplementary title for thematic reading on American Western literature.

Who it's for

A good fit for

Readers interested in early American Western fiction
Learners who want low-cost access to English public-domain novels
Readers studying early twentieth-century American popular literature
College students who need light reading material in the original English

Not a good fit for

Readers who prefer fast-paced modern genre fiction with strong plots
Beginners whose English reading ability is not yet sufficient for a full-length original novel
Readers who want a heavily annotated or introduced edition

Reading tips

Read the opening chapters first to get a feel for the language rhythm, then decide whether to read the whole book
Keep a vocabulary notebook to record regional usages and old-fashioned expressions
Use background material on American Western literature to understand the book's scene setting
Proceed chapter by chapter, reading one or two at a time and briefly retelling the plot

About the publisher

Project Gutenberg United States · Founded in 1971

Project Gutenberg is a digital publishing project focused on public-domain ebooks. Its publishing direction centers on classic literary works whose copyright has expired, covering genres such as poetry, drama, fiction, and epic. Representative books include Lyrical Ballads by Wordsworth and Coleridge, Proust's Du côté de chez Swann, Shakespeare's Macbeth and The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Homer's The Iliad, Dante's La Divina Comèdia: Purgatòri, Cervantes's The History of Don Quixote, Volume 2, and Grahame's The Wind in the Willows. Its author resources consist mainly of classic Western writers such as Wordsworth, Proust, Shakespeare, Homer, Dante, Cervantes, Grahame, and Tolstoy. Its publishing feature is the provision of freely accessible ebooks in EPUB and Kindle formats; it is not a traditional publisher, and publicly available information is limited.

FAQ

Is this book in Chinese or English?

This is the original English edition, released by Project Gutenberg. There is no Chinese translation in the book, so reading it requires some English reading ability. A dictionary or the built-in dictionary of an e-reader is recommended.

What is Project Gutenberg?

Project Gutenberg is the earliest project providing free eBooks. It was founded by Michael Hart in 1971 and is dedicated to digitizing public-domain books for free access. This book is a public-domain eBook released by that project.

What background knowledge is needed to read this book?

Basic general knowledge of American geography and history is enough; the main thing is some understanding of the social environment of the Westward Expansion period. The language dates from an early era, so when you meet old-fashioned expressions, use the context to understand them rather than examining every word.

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About the author

Dane Coolidge Author · American · 1873–1940

Dane Coolidge (1873–1940) was an American writer, naturalist and photographer. Born in Natick, Massachusetts, and raised in California, he graduated from Stanford University and collected mammal specimens for several museums in Britain and the United States before turning to literary work. He is known for his Western novels, including Hidden Water, Shadow Mountain and The Desert Trail. Eight of his works are held in this collection, commonly grouped under inspirational growth. Drawing on Western life and mining camps, his fiction is tightly plotted with vivid characters, and several of his works were adapted into films. He also pursued ethnographic research on Native Americans, an interest that runs through his writing.