Riders of the Purple Sage

Born in 1875, Pearl Zane Grey was raised in Zanesville, Ohio, a town founded by his mother’s family, and graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1896. His father was a dentist in Ohio, and Grey followed him in that profession, but in New York City. His passion for the American West was aroused in 1907 when Grey had an opportunity to tour the West with Buffalo Jones, a longtime hunter and adventurer. Under Jones’ guidance Grey traveled through the desert, chased wild horses and hunted cougars. His journals of the time were filled with glowing passages about the beauty of the land. With the publication of “Riders of the Purple Sage” Grey found his audience and went on to publish a total of 85 books. In 1937, now a wealthy writer with homes in California, Arizona and Tahiti, he suffered a stroke while fishing for steelhead on the Rogue River in Oregon. He recuperated sufficiently to go on a fishing expedition to Australia but suffered a heart attack and died on October 23, 1939 at his home in Altadena, California.