The Border Legion By Zane Grey Jim Cleve has been deemed "a good guy" all of his life, and it agitates him to no end. Even his girlfriend, Joan Randle, has scorned him for this "weakness," telling Jim, "You haven't it in you even to be bad!" Dejected and hurt, Jim abandons the life he has known for the gold mining camps along Alder Gulch in southern Montana. It is here, among the thieves and murderers, that he must make a new name for himself. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic ...
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The Border Legion By Zane Grey Jim Cleve has been deemed "a good guy" all of his life, and it agitates him to no end. Even his girlfriend, Joan Randle, has scorned him for this "weakness," telling Jim, "You haven't it in you even to be bad!" Dejected and hurt, Jim abandons the life he has known for the gold mining camps along Alder Gulch in southern Montana. It is here, among the thieves and murderers, that he must make a new name for himself. We are delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience.
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The Border Legion has without a doubt the greatest of Zane Grey's villains--the blond beast, Gulden, whose way with women was a rope and a cave, the most vicious and depraved of the border bandits. And as in earlier works by Zane Grey this novel had to undergo many editorial changes demanded by his publisher before they would print it. Things today which seem very tame indeed, but yet his editors felt did not belong in fiction, regardless of how historically accurate Zane Grey was being to actual events upon which this book was based. When Joan Randle decides to follow her 'boyfriend' Jim Cleve after he departs because of a quarrel she finds herself captured by this outlaw gang and held, only to find out Jim has joined them as well. (She had accused Jim of not being man enough to even be bad, so he sets out to prove her wrong.) This book is a fascinating look at what happens to men, I should say, mankind, when driven by their passions and left to revert to the barbaric when the environment is one of dog eat dog i.e. "survival of the fittest" a phrase used by Darwin and popularized by Zane Grey, as he subscribed to some of Darwin's theories, as seen in many of his novels as he expressed his philosophy of life, and concerns for America in his writings. It has been said more students learned of Darwin's theory from reading Zane Grey than they did in the class room. But if one goes beyond any "hidden" agenda and reads this book as a novel of escapism and adventure and romance it is a good read I think you will enjoy.
P.S. If you want the unexpurgated version as Zane Grey wrote it buy a copy of Cabin Gulch, Five Star Westerns 2006.