(Pearl) Zane Grey (1872-1939) was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and pulp fiction that presented an idealized image of the rugged Old West. He became especially interested in the West in 1907, after joining a friend on an expedition to trap mountain lions in Arizona. Grey wrote steadily, but it was only in 1910, and after considerable efforts by his wife, that his first western, Heritage of the Desert, became a bestseller. It propelled a career writing popular novels about manifest destiny ...
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(Pearl) Zane Grey (1872-1939) was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and pulp fiction that presented an idealized image of the rugged Old West. He became especially interested in the West in 1907, after joining a friend on an expedition to trap mountain lions in Arizona. Grey wrote steadily, but it was only in 1910, and after considerable efforts by his wife, that his first western, Heritage of the Desert, became a bestseller. It propelled a career writing popular novels about manifest destiny and the "conquest of the Wild West. " Two years later he produced his best-known book, Riders of the Purple Sage (1912). He became one of the first millionaire authors. Over the years his habit was to spend part of the year travelling and living an adventurous life and the rest of the year using his adventures as the basis for the stories in his writings. His other works include: Betty Zane (1903), The Young Pitcher (1911), The Border Legion (1916), Wildfire (1917), To the Last Man (1922) and The Day of the Beast (1922).
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The Graham-Tewskbury feud on which this story is based is as legendary out West as the Hatfield-McCoy feud is back East. Zane Grey, of course, adds his own twist to the facts, but over-all this is probably the most accurate accounting there will ever be, as Zane Grey was able to talk to old-timers who were still living and had gone through the feud. The one scene with the hogs is the one most readers will never forget, and is based on fact. The "Romeo and Juliet" part is consistent with other romances written by Grey, and has to be in the story line to make it historical romance, which is what he considered himself to be writing---not westerns! In fact, the word, or term, "western" was not even coined until around 1930. By then Zane Grey had been writing this kind of stories for 20 years. We do an injustice to him when we say, "oh, the writer of westerns" when his name is mentioned.
