Bibliographical Description
[within a compartment 178 x 107 mm, overlaid toward fore-edge with a water motif]
ROBERT | OLMSTEAD | [rule 60 mm] | SOFT WATER | [rule 75 mm] | VINTAGE | CONTEMPORARIES | VINTAGE BOOKS | A DIVISION OF RANDOM HOUSE | NEW YORK
120 leaves, pp. [10] 1–3 4-9 10 11-20 21 22-35 36 37-45 46 47-59 60 61-68 69 70-75 76–79 80-85 86 87-96 97 98-102 103 104-111 112 113-124 125 126-138 139–141 142-149 150 151-160 161 162-168 169 170-176 177 178-183 184 185-190 191 192-199 200 201-206 207 208-219 220 221-223 224 225-226 [4]
A Vintage Contemporaries Original, First Edition, May 1988
Contents: π1a author photo with excerpt, π1b ‘Also by Robert Olmstead’, π2a half-title, π2b blank, π3a title, π3b imprint, π4a dedication, π4b blank, π5a epigraph, π5b blank, 1-226 Soft Water: 1-75 ‘[within a compartment 178 x 107 mm] PART ONE | [rule 83 mm] | STREAMS | [rule 82 mm] | A2n Indian Method in Winter—of killing wild game, | wolves, bears, etc. . . . take a piece of flexible steel or | whalebone and bend it into a small circle, securing it with | sinew, this they insert in a ball of meat, flesh, fat and | blood and allow to freeze . . . these they throw out on the | snow or ice about the haunts of animals; coming along | they find them and being hungry, ravenously devour | them. The heat of the stomach soon melts the frozen | parts, the spring coil straightens out piercing the stomach, | causing agony and death which in due time ensues. . . . I | have often assisted in the preparation of these killing balls, | and witnessed their fearful results. | — Buzzacott’, 76 blank, 77-138 ‘[within a compartment 178 x 107 mm] PART TWO | [rule 64 mm] | RIVERS | [rule 69 mm] | A2t such times they remain quiet seemingly lifeless and | because they exert so little energy they require but | little and it is during activity only that they consume | quantities of food. | It is the inclination to go into deeper and consequently warmer water in the fall , that has doubtless been the fac- | tor in developing that migrating instinct in the species that | run “down stream in fall” and “up stream in spring.” | — Buzzacott’, 139-226 ‘[within a compartment 178 x 107 mm] PART THREE | [rule 55 mm] | MISTS | [rule 56 mm] | A2nother method of hunting Deer is by what is termed | “jacking.” . . . I have often hunted thus, years ago, | when game was more plentiful, and must admit there is a | fascination about “jacking” or fire-hunting that is intensely | interesting, and the strange weird sight of the glaring eyes | with the unusual incident of the surroundings, and quiet | amply repays for the watch and wait. Good marksmanship | here is of course essential. . . . | — Buzzacott’, χ1a about the author, χ1b blank, χ2a Vintage Contemporaries order form, χ2b Vintage Contemporaries list.
Cover design by Lorraine Louie; cover illustration by Rick Lovell; interior author photo by David Tobin.
Copyright: © 1988. ISBN: 0-394-75752-1. Price: $6.95. Soft Water was first published by Vintage Contemporaries 1988.
Copies: JDP 1.1
Blurbs
- (front cover) Robert Olmstead’s prose is Hemingway-lucid, the details vivid….He can tell a harrowing tale. – Village Voice
- Sparkling, tense, and gripping, Soft Water is an exceptional novel of murder, romance, and deceit in rural New England. The tale begins deep in the Maine woods, where Asel, orphaned and alone since childhood, lives as a guide and trapper, oblivious to the outside world. His isolation ends in violence when he kills two mysterious hunters who have cruelly shot his only friend. Fleeing to civilization, Asel falls in love with an enigmatic woman with magically long, flowing hair. Asel guards her night and day, anxiously awaiting the moment when his victims’ heirs seek their inevitable revenge.
- I admire Robert Olmstead’s work for its quiet, unexpected humor, its ingenious voice and natural eye, and for the ways in which characters always triumph over heartlessness. Soft Water is a fine and richly detailed book. – Lorrie Moore
- Olmstead’s New England is far from the quaint white churches of the Updike set….There’s no mistaking the poetry or freshness. – New York
- Compelling power…Olmstead is a very good storyteller. – Philadelphia Inquirer
- Olmstead is anything but conventional….His originality springs from a voice that vividly and unforgettably conjures this foreign landscape. – Chicago Tribune
