Zane Grey - (1872-1939)
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Campbell County High School, Gillette, Wyoming
Read another essay about Zane Grey written by California student
Rajan Mohan.Ancestry, cowhand, rancher, desperado, buffalo hunter, gambler, soldier, indian, and trail drivers. What do these words have in common? They are just some of the many subjects Zane Grey, the Great Western novelist, wrote about. Grey became one of the most popular writers, a World record angler, and an outdoorsman, but his success and fame did not come overnight.
Although Grey never lived in Wyoming, he is considered a Wyoming author because he wrote about the area around Independence Rock (Central Wyoming) in his novel, Wyoming.
I. Biography
Grey was born in Zanesville, Ohio, on January 31, 1872. Grey was a descendent of the Zane family who settled Ohio and founded the town of Zanesville. In his youth, he loved the sport of baseball and later played semi-professionally. He attended the University of Pennsylvania on a baseball scholarship and majored in dentistry. His efforts towards dentistry were only half-hearted due to his great desire to write. This ambition was so great he had enough discipline to teach himself how to write. After he realized his talent, he got a publisher who knew a bestseller when he saw one.
He married Lina Roth in 1905. Zane and Dolly had three children together: Romer, Betty, and Loren. The small family lived next to the Delaware River in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania. In 1910 Zane wrote a breakthrough novel called Heritage of the Desert. After this novel, his family moved west for good. As his novels continued to do well, he took up fishing and traveled the country doing so. He became the most famous Western author and had a novel in the top ten bestsellers throughout the early 1900's. He loved the west and writing about it. Grey would spend several months each year on a safari then come home and weave these experiences into an exciting novel.
II. Literary Works
Betty Zane 1940
The Last of the Plains men 1908
The Last Trail 1909
The Heritage of the Desert 1910
Riders of the Purple Sage 1912
Desert Gold 1913
The Lone Star Ranger 1915
The Rainbow Trail 1915
The U.P. Trail 1918
The Desert of Wheat 1919
The Man of the Forest 1920
The Mysterious Rider 1921
To the Last Man 1922
The Call of the Canyon 1923
The Thundering Herd 1925
The Vanishing American 1925
Nevada 1926
Sunset Pass 1933
Western Union 1939
Valley of Wild Horses 1942
Wyoming 1953
Horse Heaven Hill 1959
Boulder Dam 1963
III. Conclusion
With these novels Grey caught the imagination of several generations of readers. Grey loved to write and occupied his life living his dream until his untimely death of heart failure on October 23, 1939. His adventurous stories still captivate readers today.
IV. References
The Many Faces of Zane Grey. G.M. Farely. Silver Spruce Publishing.
Zane Grey's New West. 14 Feb. 2000
Zane Grey's West Society. Marian Kester Coombs. 14 Feb. 2000
This essay was submitted by a student of Nathel Coca, a teacher at Campbell County High School in Gillette, Wyoming.