Dates

• Existence: 1872 - 1939

Biography

Zane Grey (1872-1939) was one of the world's most prominent and prolific writers of Western novels.

Pearl Zane Gray was born January 31, 1872, in his ancestral home of Zanesville, Ohio. The fourth of five children born to Lewis M. Gray, a dentist, and Josephine Alice Zane, his was an active boyhood marked by attendance at local schools and participation in many boyhood activities of which fishing and baseball were his favorites.

After serving an apprenticeship with his father, he entered dental school at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia in 1892. Although he was acclaimed for his success as an outstanding shortstop on the school's baseball team, his academic performance was only average. He graduated in 1896, and while practicing dentistry in New York City continued to play baseball with the Athletic Club in East Orange, New Jersey.

In 1900 he met his future wife, editor, and life-long source of encouragement, Lina Elise Roth, known as Dolly. During their five year courtship Gray changed his name to Zane Grey (dropping his first name and changing the spelling of his last), gave up his dental practice, and began a career as an author. After receiving many rejections by publishers, on his own he published his first book, entitled Betty Zane (1903). He and Dolly were married the following year, making their first home in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania.

Grey's attention was drawn west to the geographic area which would provide the setting for most of his major books when he met Charles Jesse ("Buffalo") Jones in 1906. An older hunter who had set out to preserve and breed buffalo which were in danger of extinction, Jones took Grey to the American Southwest for the purpose of having Grey write a book about his life. Upon returning to the East fired by his experiences, he expressed his sentiments in The Last of the Plainsmen, a book about Jones. In 1910 he published Heritage of the Desert and in 1912 Riders of the Purple Sage. These two books were his first major successes in literature and the ones by which he established his national reputation as an author. Riders of the Purple Sage was enormously successful and is his best known and probably his best loved work.

His greatest sustained success, wealth, and fame came after him, Dolly, and their three children (Romer, Betty, and Lore) moved to Altadena, California, in 1918. Included among his works published during this time were To the Last Man, Tappan's Burro, Forlorn River, The Shepherd of Guadaloupe, Robbers' Roost, and The Trail Driver. By 1930 he was hailed as the most sought after writer in America.

When he was not writing, Grey took lengthy trips to such places as New Zealand, Australia, and Tahiti, where he set world records with his deep sea fishing catches (at one time he held ten world records) and where he had many of the experiences that later served as the basis for some of his writing. He enjoyed hunting and exploring as well, and these activities also found expression in his sports and adventure stories, written for both juvenile and adult readers.

Zane Grey died October 23, 1939, in Altadena, California. During his lifetime he sold nearly 20 million copies of his novels, and another 20 million have been sold posthumously. Before his death he published 40 western romances in addition to works for juveniles, and collections of short stories and books on his adventures as a hunter, explorer, and fisherman. Since his death another 23 of his books have been published. Desert Gold, The Rainbow Trail, The Border Legion, To The Last Man, The Shepherd of Guadaloupe, Robbers' Roost, The Trail Driver, Twin Sombreros, Ride the Man Down, Lost Pueblo, and Boulder Dam; and the novelettes Tappan's Burro, Don The Ranger, Canyon Walls From Missouri, and The Horse Thief.

Citation:

Zane Grey: A Biography, 1970 (comprehensive list of book titles, sales statistics)

Wikipedia, website viewed June 14, 2011 (b. Jan. 31, 1872, Zanesville, Ohio; parents: Lewis M. Gray, Josephine Alice Zane Grey; father a dentist; 4th of 5 children; Grey loved fishing and baseball; attended dental school at University of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia from 1892-1896; was shortstop on University baseball team; played baseball with athletic club of East Orange, New Jersey; met wife Dolly in 1900, courted 5 years before marrying; Grey's occupation orginially dentist, then author; rejected by publishers so self-published Betty Zane in 1903; lived in Lackawaxen, Penns. with wife; met Charles Jesse "Buffalo" Jones in 1906; travelled Jones to American Southwest; wrote Last of the Plainsmen about Jones; published Heritage of the Desert in 1910 and Riders of the Purple Sage in 1912; moved to Altadena, Calif. with family in 1918; from 1918-1930 wrote To the Last Man, Tappan's Burro, Forlorn River, The Shepherd of Guadaloupe, Robbers' Roost, and The Trail Driver, among others; took trips to New Zealand, Australia and Tahiti for deep-sea fishing; held ten deep-sea fishing records; Grey hunted and explored; his novels produced into movies; also wrote short stories and recounts of his own adventures; Grey's novels sold 20 million copies before his death and another 20 million copies after; published 40 western romances before death, another 23 published posthumously; married Lina "Dolly" Elise Roth Nov. 21, 1905, New York, N.Y.; children: Romer Zane, Betty, and Loren; d. Oct. 23, 1939, Atlandena, Calif.)

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