"Riders of the Purple Sage," perhaps more than any other novel, contributed to the concept of the American West. The mysterious gunfighter, the outlaw boss and his masked accomplice, the frontier woman torn between love and law, the laconic cowboy out on the range--all these figures became familiar to readers through the work of Zane Grey. If Owen Wister invented the Western story in "The Virginian" (Bison Books 1992), Grey moved it farther west in the popular imagination and supplied authentic atmosphere. "Riders of the ...
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"Riders of the Purple Sage," perhaps more than any other novel, contributed to the concept of the American West. The mysterious gunfighter, the outlaw boss and his masked accomplice, the frontier woman torn between love and law, the laconic cowboy out on the range--all these figures became familiar to readers through the work of Zane Grey. If Owen Wister invented the Western story in "The Virginian" (Bison Books 1992), Grey moved it farther west in the popular imagination and supplied authentic atmosphere. "Riders of the Purple Sage "is "pure Americana," to quote one critic. It has the classic elements of the genre: revenge, fast horses, abduction, pistol duels, cattle stampedes, daring pursuits and escapes, dark secrets, hidden gold, pastoral refuge, splendid sunsets--and Grey's emphasis on the passion of man and woman. What "The Nation" said about the novel in 1912 still stands: it contains all that storytellers about the West "have ever dreamed of or invented to stir the heart and freeze the blood."
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Add this copy of Riders of the Purple Sage: the Authorized Edition to cart. $9.84, very good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by University of Nebraska Press.
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Add this copy of Riders of the Purple Sage: the Authorized Edition to cart. $9.84, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Atlanta rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Austell, GA, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by University of Nebraska Press.
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Add this copy of Riders of the Purple Sage: the Authorized Edition to cart. $9.84, good condition, Sold by ThriftBooks-Dallas rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dallas, TX, UNITED STATES, published 1994 by University of Nebraska Press.
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What can one say about "Riders of the Purple Sage" that hasn�t already been said? For as long as man has dreamed of the west, he has written about it or sought it out for himself. James Fennimore Cooper wrote about the "west". There were the Dime Novels and the Penny Dreadfuls of the 1800's written by such as Ned Buntline. Then an Easterner named Owen Wister created a character called "The Virginian" and Zane Grey had already written "Heritage of the Desert" but "Riders of the Purple Sage" would immortalize both the author and the genre of "westerns". From then on every "western" would be compared to this one. The ironic part is: Zane Grey never considered them to be "westerns"; they were romances, romantic adventures, romantic novels. And to be totally accurate, the word, "western" did not exist at the time this book was written; it did not come into use until 1927 at the earliest, so to insist Zane Grey was a "western" writer is suspect, at best. But "Riders of the Purple Sage" has everything a person has come to know and understand that belongs in a story of the west--the taciturn gunfighter; the woman in distress fighting a losing battle; great scenery; fast horses; and evil men. Yet "Riders" is more than that. It has sub-plots upon sub-plots that keep the reader wondering what is going to happen next, and this book "fills the bill". And, what most people don't know or realize today, Zane Grey wrote quite often from a woman's viewpoint, and does so in this book. At the time of Zane Grey's greatest popularity more than half of his readership were women, and he was published in such magazines as, Cosmopolitan, Colliers, and Ladies Home Journal. If you have never read a "western" I whole-heartedly urge you to try this one.
