From Library Journal
In the early 20th -century, Zane Grey became one of the most popular writers in America. His novels, described in this study as primarily romances first and then Westerns, were instrumental in shaping our ideas about the West. May (Colorado Northwestern Coll.) has written a brief overview of Grey's life and an analysis of such major works as Riders of the Purple Sage, The U.P. Trail, and The Vanishing American. Though he traces Grey's life from his early years in Ohio, when his father would not tolerate a son who wanted to be a writer, to phenomenal success later in life, the strength of May's work is his analysis. Should the reader want a more detailed study of Grey's life, Frank Gruber's Zane Grey (1971) should be consulted.?Ronald Ratliff, Chapman H.S., Kan.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Booklist
Zane Grey must certainly be classified as one of America's most enduring authors. After nearly a century of much critical scorn, his mystique still captures the public's imagination. May's is a fresh view of Grey and his work, focusing on key periods of his personal life and their influence in shaping his major novels. During his lifetime he wrote 78 books, and by 1955 more than 20 million copies had been sold in the U.S. and 4 million abroad. May concentrates on Grey's great novels, which span the period 1903^-26 and have themselves become part of western mythology. Grey was primarily a romance writer who considered his novels to be romances true to the western spirit rather than actual facts of history. From an average childhood and life, he reinvented himself to a degree unheard of for the time--as he reinvented the West itself. Critics accuse him of convincing many that western writing could not possess any merit; he was, however, a fluent writer who left an enduring legacy that is still enjoyed by a vast multitude of readers. Fred Egloff
--This text refers to the
Hardcover
edition.
