Zane Grey. Brainy Quote.com. Explore Inc. 2012. http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/z/zane_grey.html, accessed Jan 27, 2012.
Illustration from a photo on Wikipedia.
Zane Grey, Jan 31, l872 - Oct 23, 1939, baseball player, fisherman, writer.
He was one of my biggest influences when I began to think about writing Westerns. I haven't read many of his books, but the ones I have are Robbers' Roost, The U. P. Trail, Under the Tonto Rim, Wild Horse Mesa, and, I think, Western Union. I read these a long time ago and don't remember too much about them other than I enjoyed them, except for the boring parts, e.g., the detailed landscape descriptions. My mother started reading Riders of the Purple Sage to me, but it never was completed. I have one of his books on the shelf, entitled Desert of Wheat and I wouldn't be surprised to find that it's a first edition. I can't tell because the title page has been torn out and it has only 376 text pages. This edition has a library card jacket in the front from the Carnegie Public Library of Centralia, Washington, with the Rules on it, one of them being "The Borrower's Library Card Should be Kept in this Pocket" and another one, "FINES - A fine of two cents a day shall be paid for each book kept overtime. No book shall be lent to any person whom a book or unpaid fine is charged," and "NUMBER OF VOLUMES - One fiction volume may be drawn at a time on each card." According to Wikipedia, Desert of Wheat was published in 1919 almost 100 years ago. The volume looks like it has been around a long time, the pages turned yellowish, some pages torn, and the top and bottom of the text pages are blackened from being handled. It still has the black-and-white illustrations. If I live long enough, I'll eventually get around to reading it.
And there was me thinking it was only old romances that had boring descriptions of landscape!
ReplyDeleteI actually never read Zane grey as a kid. Read mostly L'Amour. But as an adult I did read some Grey. LIked what I read, and I liked the landscape descriptions. Not as good as L'Amour it still seems to me, and definitely feels more dated, but fun stuff.
ReplyDeletePatsy, see Charles comment.
ReplyDeleteCharles, his descriptions turned me off from the very first and I never got over it, but I don't find them quite as boring as they used to be.
That must be quite a fine you've accumulated by now Oscar, you old book rustler.
ReplyDeleteHAHAHAHA! It would be a mighty stiff one, if they could catch the culprit who stole it, but I think the library finally gave it away.
DeleteThere is a hotel on Catalina Island named for him. He was pretty famous in his day. Loved the sketch, Oscar.
ReplyDeleteWe've been planning to visit Catalina for years. Maybe we'll get around to it. Thanks, Elaine.
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