Zane Grey was born Pearl Zane Grey on January 31, 1872. Grey attended the University of Pennsylvania on a baseball scholarship and studied dentistry. It was his dream, however, to become a writer. Grey taught himself how to write and worked tirelessly at his vocation hoping to have one of his works accepted by a publisher. It was not until 1903 when he was 31 years old that his first book was published. Zane Grey was then to become the bestselling Western author of all time.
Grey married Lina Roth in 1905 and had three children Romer, Betty and Loren. With his success Grey was able to move his family West. Desert Gold was first published in 1913. The novel is a classic tale of the Old West where the men are strong and ready to fight for what they love. The women are feisty and bold. Dick Gale comes to the West to become a man and prove himself to his father. He proves his strength of character with not only helping his friend Tom Belding keep his ranch, but in the defeat of the rebel leader Rojas and the saving of the beautiful aristocrat Mercedes Castañeda. Gale falls in love with the beautiful and willful Nell Burton and finds a fortune in gold securing not only his future and that of the woman he loves, but also for the friends he has made while carving out his new life.
Zane Grey died of heart failure on October 23 in Altadena, California on October 23, 1939. Grey wrote three books a year, but his publisher would only print one a year. Due to this twenty-five of his novels were published posthumously. His last novel The Reef Girl was published in 1977. Zane Grey was the author of 86 books, 60 of which were westerns, 9 were about fishing, 3 books were about his family the Ohio Zanes, the rest of his writing were short story collections, a biography of the young George Washington, juvenile fiction and baseball stories. Grey’s novels and short stories have been adapted into 110 films, one television episode and a television series, Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theater. Desert Gold was made into a film in 1936. The film was directed by James P. Hogan and stared Buster Crabbe and Marsha Hunt.
