Zane Grey
January 31, 1872 – October 23, 1939

“Realism is death to me. I cannot stand life as it is.”

~ The fourth of five children, born to a dentist and a Quaker whose ancestors founded the town.

~ As a child, Zane fought in violent brawls. His father beat him severely.

~ He wrote his first story, Jim of the Cave, when he was fifteen. His father tore it to shreds and beat him.

~ Both Zane and his brother Romer were athletic, especially enthusiastic over baseball.

~ In 1889, poor investments forced Zane's father to move his family to Columbus, Ohio. He struggled to re-establish his dental practice.

~ To help out, Zane made rural house calls and performed basic extractions. But soon the state board intervened.

~ Zane also worked as a part-time usher in a movie theater and played summer baseball for the Columbus Capitols. He thought he wanted to be a major leaguer.

~ Zane attended the University of Pennsylvania on a baseball scholarship, where he studied dentistry.

~ He was an indifferent scholar, barely achieving a minimum average. Outside class he spent his time on baseball, pool, and creative writing, especially poetry.

~ His shy nature and teetotaling set him apart. He didn't socialized much.

~ Zane decided he wanted to be a writer, but unhappily concluded that dentistry was the practical choice.

~ During a summer break, while playing 'summer nines' in Delphos, Ohio, Zane was charged with a paternity suit. His father paid the $133.40 cost to settle it. Zane went back to playing summer baseball.

~ After graduating, Zane established his practice in New York City because he wanted to be close to publishers.

~ He wrote in the evenings to offset the tedium of his dental practice.

~ When canoeing in 1900 on the Delaware River, Zane met seventeen year-old Lina Roth, better known as "Dolly." They married five years later.

~ Zane suffered bouts of depression, anger and mood swings most of his life.

~ During his courtship with Dolly, Zane still saw other women. He warned her, "I shall never lose the spirit of my interest in women."

~ After they married, Zane ended his dental practice to devote his time to literary pursuits.

~ With the help of Dolly’s proofreading, Zane gradually improved his writing style. His first magazine article was published in the Recreation magazine.

~ After reading Owen Wister’s great Western novel The Virginian, he decided to write a full-length story. When Betty Zane was rejected, Zane lapsed into a deep depression.

~ In 1907 he attended a lecture by C. T. "Buffalo" Jones, famed western hunter and guide. This changed his life.

~ He went on hunting trips, took along a portable camera and began the habit of taking copious notes of scenery, activities and dialogue.

~ Finally Zane had the confidence to write convincingly about the West.

~ When Zane submitted his book, The Last of the Plainsmen, he received yet another rejection.

~ Zane was beside himself. "I don’t know which way to turn. I cannot decide what to write next. That which I desire to write does not seem to be what the editors want... I am full of stories and zeal and fire... yet I am inhibited by doubt, by fear that my feeling for life is false".

~ The book was later published by another publishing house.

~ With a baby on the way, Zane felt pressure to complete his next novel, and did so in four months. The Heritage of the Desert became a bestseller.

~ He continued to write popular novels about Manifest Destiny, the conquest of the Old West and the behavior of men in the elements.

~ Zane's best-known book Riders of the Purple Sage was published in 1912. It's one of the most successful Western novels of all.

~ Zane had the time and money to engage in his first and greatest passion —fishing.

~ From 1918 until 1932 he was a regular contributor to Outdoor Life magazine, and helped to popularize big-game fishing.

~ Dolly managed his career and raised their three children. She knew of his mistresses, but seemed to view it as his handicap.

~ Their correspondence reveals Zane's lasting love and respect for her despite his indiscretions.

~ Grey would have dry spells and bursts of energy where he could wrote as much as 100,000 words in a month.

~ The Depression hurt the publishing industry in the 30s. Zane found it more difficult to sell his serializations. Nearly half of adaptations for film were made in the 30s.

~ Zane became one of the first millionaire authors.

~ He died of heart failure at his home in Altadena, California. He was interred at the Union Cemetery in Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania.

~ From 1917–1926 Zane was in the top ten bestseller list nine times. Even after his death, a new title was published every year until 1963.