Zane Grey was a disappointed aspirant to major league baseball and an unhappy dentist when he belatedly decided to take up writing at the age of thirty. He went on to become the most successful American author of the 1920s, a significant figure in the early development of the film industry, and a central player in the early popularity of the Western. Thomas H. Pauly's work is the first full-length biography of Grey to appear in over thirty years. Using a hitherto unknown trove of letters and journals, including never-before-seen photographs of his adventures--both natural and amorous--Zane Grey has greatly enlarged and radically altered the current understanding of the superstar author, whose fifty-seven novels and one hundred and thirty movies heavily influenced the world's perception of the Old West.

Riders of the Purple Sage tells the story of Jane Withersteen and her battle to overcome persecution by members of her polygamous Mormon fundamentalist church. A leader of the church, Elder Tull, wants to marry her. Withersteen gets help from a number of friends, including Bern Venters and Lassiter, a notorious gunman and killer of Mormons. She struggles with her "blindness" to the evil nature of her church and its leaders, and tries to keep Venters and Lassiter from killing the adversaries who are slowly ruining her.

Discover six classic novels as you follow the footsteps of the trailblazers who settled the American West. As the American West opened up to settlers after the Civil War, people were eager for tales of great adventures, endless possibilities, and the pioneering spirit. Classic Westerns is a collection of six novels that captured this sense of exploration and brought the rugged landscape into the homes of readers everywhere. These novels—The Virginian by Owen Wister, O Pioneers! by Willa Cather, The Lone Star Ranger and The Mysterious Rider by Zane Grey, and Gunman’s Reckoning and The Untamed by Max Brand—tell of life on the open plains, in dusty outposts, and alongside majestic mountain ranges that rose to greet travelers who ventured forth into the unexplored country to find their destinies.

Think the Old West was nothing but outlaws and cowboys? Think again. In The Young Forester, acclaimed Western writer Zane Grey follows the death-defying adventures of a forest fireman, one of the many brave souls who laid his own safety on the line to make the wild terrain of the region safe and inhabitable.

Along the notorious Rogue River, gold seekers, crazed by the discovery of nuggets that made them rich overnight, are at war with one another. The river itself swarms with salmon, bringing along with them another kind of wealth and violent fighting between fishermen and the fish-packing monopoly. Into this scene comes Keven Bell, returning to face life after being handicapped by a disfiguring wound he received in World War I. Keven teams up with a broken-down fisherman and boatbuilder. When they try to buck the salmon-packing monopoly, they encounter violence and trickery; their boat is sunk and they are left to swim for their lives. Keven is tended to by Beryl, the daughter of a gold miner. His convalescence is slow, but the autumn days, fishing and camping, make a woodland dream of romance. But no sooner has an operation straightened out Keven’s injuries than he is framed on a charge of murder in the salmon-packing war. Keven must carry on as best he can, along with what help Beryl and her old father can give, to clear his name and ensure his and Beryl’s safety on the turbulent Rogue. Zane Grey’s vigorous storytelling and portrayal of violence in the wild make this novel one of his best. There is a deep emotional feeling for nature in the raw, for the great salmon runs, and for the clashes of men fighting for gold.

The Desert of Wheat is a thrilling and romantic tale of sabotage in the wheat fields of the Pacific Northwest during World War I. A passionate novel of patriotic and anti-union propaganda, it portrays the anxieties of the young country threatened by a foreign war after the closing of the frontier. Grey captures the heart of a nation at the brink of a century of change.

Tells the story from Washington's birth to the time he takes command of the Continental Army.