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 | | | Photograph: Zane Grey and his horse, Juan Carlos. |
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| 10/23/1939 |
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Zane Grey's West
On this day in 1939, Zane Grey died. Fifty-six of his eighty-nine books are westerns; many of them are not just shoot-em-ups but, as here in The U.P. Trail, observe and lament the "many shining bands of steel across the plains and mountains, many stations and hamlets and cities, a growing and marvelous prosperity from timber, mines, farms, and in the distant end -- a gutted West." |
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"Lawmen and Outlaws"
An essay explores the literary history of the American West in stories about Joaquin Murieta, Billy the Kid, Jesse and Frank James, Sam Bass, and others. Discusses the works of James Butler ("Wild Bill") Hickok, Max Brand, Louis L'Amour, Walter Woods, Zane Grey and others.
"... Grey's novels, populated as they were with robbers and rustlers, reveal many aspects of western development. Historically, there was a thin line between lawmen and outlaws, and such personalities as Frank Canton or Henry Brown might be cited as examples of those who stepped from one side to the other. Fiction writers used this situation quite frequently. What might be called the mixed-identities plot, reminiscent of Restoration drama, is a recurrent one. The suave and respectable banker or rancher is secretly the mastermind of a rustling operation. The desperate outlaw on the other hand is actually a cattle detective or a U.S. marshal working 'under cover.' ... Another standard for Grey and others is the "frame-up" plot. The hero is forced into outlawry, at least temporarily, by an ingenious villain who traps him with a murder indictment or a rustling charge. The protagonist must clear himself of the frame-up, because the legal machinery is either inoperative or under the control of the villain. In the novels, characters placed in such situations always express their admiration for the common law which is administered through the courts. But they also recognize that the unsettled conditions of the frontier society in which they live make this law inapplicable. Consequently, the hero of the story, whether nominally lawman or outlaw, must accomplish what the official legal system cannot. This extreme freedom of action, the absolute individualism, is what makes many Westerns part of a romantic tradition." |  | Online Books Page
Find electronic texts including The Lone Star Ranger, The U. P. Trail, Betty Zane, The Border Legion, The Call of the Canyon, Desert Gold: A Romance of the Border, The Heritage of the Desert, The Last of the Plainsmen, The Light of Western Stars, The Mysterious Rider, The Young Forester, and other works. | |
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The TinL masthead features photography by
Natasha D'Schommer
, and the book art featured is by Jim Rosenau.
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