Zane Grey

BEST-SELLING STORYTELLER OF THE AMERICAN WEST

∗ Born January 31, 1872 in Zanesville, Ohio

∗ Attended the University of Pennsylvania on a baseball scholarship, and played with a minor league team in Wheeling, West Virginia

∗ Became interested in the West after joining a friend on a 1907 expedition to North Rim of the Grand Canyon to rope mountain lions for zoos

∗ Wrote his first Western in 1910, Heritage of the Desert, an instant best-seller that catapulted him to stardom

∗ Wrote more than 90 books, including 60 Westerns, which idealized the romantic popular image of the Old West; also wrote 220 short stories

∗ More than half his Westerns are set in the Colorado Plateau region of northeast Arizona and southern Utah, particularly along the Mogollon Rim

∗ Called the state “my beloved Arizona

∗ Bought a cabin in 1923 on Tonto Creek, 18 miles east of Payson, where he spent time each year through 1929; cabin destroyed in the 1990 Dude fire; replica built in 2005 at Payson’s Rim Country Museum and is open to the public

∗ Refused to return to Arizona after 1929 when officials wouldn’t bend the rules to let him film a documentary about bear hunting after the season was over; also believed that Arizona was being overrun by tourists and speculators

∗ Was an avid outdoorsman, enjoying fishing, sailing, hunting, and was a regular contributor from 1918 to 1932 to Outdoor Life magazine

∗ Became a deep-sea fishing expert, frequently visiting New Zealand, in particular; held 14 deep-sea fishing records, all of which have since been broken; wrote nine books about fishing

∗ Provided the basis for more than 130 movies through his writings

∗ Credited with inspiring the creation of two popular radio series that later moved to television: The Lone Ranger from Grey’s novel The Lone Star Ranger, and Challenge of the Yukon (Sgt. Preston of the Yukon on TV) from Grey’s King of the Royal Mounted

∗ Inspired the creation of Zane Grey Theatre, a CBS-TV Western anthology series (1956 to 1961)

∗ Died October 23, 1939 in Altadena, California

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