The Writer of the West
When Jean Karr wrote this book in 1949, as far as I know there had not been a biography about Zane Grey published. I can't find one listed any earlier than this, only Zane Grey's self written treatise of his life published as "My Maiden Effort" in a magazine, or the short book Harpers published "Zane Grey: The Man and His Work" in the late 1920's. This book covers Grey's entire life as told to her by surviving people who had known Zane Grey as a boy, and by residents of Zanesville where he grew up. Other information was gathered from the publishing house, Harper and Brothers; but nothing from the family, as best as I can tell. And given what we know today, that is understandable. Yet, having said all of that, this book gives the reader a wealth of information about Zane Grey, his travels as adventurer, wanderer, investigator, and sportsman. This book is well worth the price for anyone who wishes to know about the greatest western novelist of all time, and it just might lead you to want to know more about the 'real' Zane Grey, as many other biographies and studies have been done in recent years about the man and his work. But this one started it all.