History of Zane Grey...

“My beloved Arizona" was the term of endearment Zane Grey bestowed upon this state. Its history and people inspired his western novels. Its game and landscape impassioned his zeal for the wild, and its rugged natural beauty stirred his introspective soul.

Grey's passion for the American frontier was his birthright; his ancestors, the Zanes, were heroes of the American Revolution who settled the Ohio River Valley. But Grey was a baseball player, a New York City dentist and a starving writer before his tales of the western frontier made him "the father of the western novel."

His popularity and proliferation were unprecedented in his time. Virtually all of his 57 novels, over 200 short stories, 10 non-fiction westerns, hunting and fishing articles and books and 130 movies were enormously successful.

Grey's books have been published in over 20 languages, and estimated annual sales today are between 500,000 and one million copies world wide. The Riders Of The Purple Sage is considered the quintessential western classic of all time.

Zane Grey's influence on Americana is far reaching:

His name graces schools, libraries, museums, civic groups, roads, subdivisions and a liberty ship.
His movies launched the careers of Shirley Temple, John Wayne, Tom Mix and Randolph Scott.
He co-founded the Izaak Walton League, a conservationist organization whose publication was the forerunner of Outdoor America.
He owned patents on fishing lures, held eleven worlds records in deep sea fishing and his trophies were displayed at the Museum of Natural Science.
Correspondence with Ernest Hemingway regarding Grey's struggle with a huge marlin parallels Hemingway's classic, The Old Man And The Sea.
Fans included Anwar Sadat, Dwight Eisenhower and Winston Churchill. President George H. Bush quoted Grey in a speech.

For more information on Zane Grey..

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and visit the Zane Grey's West Society Website