Zane Grey
About the Book
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 central to the early popularity of the Western.Grey's personal life was as colorful as his best novels. Two backcountry trips into the Grand Canyon inspired his first Westerns, and he returned to Arizona annually for many years. His matching passion for sport fishing carried him to Mexico, Nova Scotia, the Galapagos Islands, New Zealand, Tahiti, and Australia. These trips were a canvas for the striking contradictions in Grey's life. Though he celebrated chastity and romantic love in his novels and his marriage was crucial to his success, these ideals were sorely tested by his long separations, deep depressions, and multiple involvements with women. Likewise his popularization of hunting, fishing, and the latest equipment threatened the wilderness that he revered and campaigned to protect.
Thomas H. Pauly's work is the first full-length biography of Zane 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 will greatly enlarge and radically alter 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.
About the Author
Thomas H. Pauly is a professor of English at the University of Delaware. He is the author of books on Elia Kazan and the historical background of the musical Chicago.Reviews
"Billed at his death as 'the greatest selling author of all time,' with his work exceeded in sales 'only by the Bible and the Boy Scout Handbook,' Zane Grey was as much a brand as a writer--a brand that would eventually come to encompass films, television series, [and] a monthly magazine. . . . And behind the brand stood the man: a self-made model of rugged rural virtue. . . . And also, as it turns out, quite the swinger. The revelations about Grey's blue cache of journals and photos--and about Grey's considerable harem of mistresses, who openly shared him with his wife and one another--make Thomas H. Pauly's biography a major correction to the wholesome image Grey enjoyed for almost a century."--Jonathan Miles, New York Times Book Review"Although fans of Zane Grey may be taken aback to discover certain characteristics or traits of this famous writer, what emerges from Pauly's text is an honest and straightforward account of the charms and foibles of a man who defined and lived his life as he saw fit."--Journal of the West
"A solid, entertaining read. Highly recommended."--Choice
Awards
• Winner, Best Biography in the Classic Angling Magazine's Book Awards, 2007Related Titles
