- Grey, Zane
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orig. Pearl Greyborn Jan. 31, 1872, Zanesville, Ohio, U.S.died Oct. 23, 1939, Altadena, Calif.U.S. novelist.He began his career as a dentist. He first visited the American West in 1906, setting his first novel, The Heritage of the Desert (1910), there. His second novel, Riders of the Purple Sage (1912), was also set in the West and became the most popular of all his books; it helped launch a new literary genre, the western. Grey subsequently wrote more than 80 westerns, including Code of the West (1934). He remains one of the best-selling authors of all time.
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▪ American authororiginal name Pearl Greyborn Jan. 31, 1872, Zanesville, Ohio, U.S.died Oct. 23, 1939, Altadena, Calif.prolific writer whose romantic novels of the American West largely created a new literary genre, the western.Trained as a dentist, Grey practiced in New York City from 1898 to 1904, when he published privately a novel of pioneer life, Betty Zane, based on an ancestor's journal. Deciding to abandon dentistry for full-time writing, he published in 1905 The Spirit of the Border—also based on Zane's notes—which became a best-seller. Grey subsequently wrote more than 80 books, a number of which were published posthumously; more than 50 were in print in the last quarter of the 20th century. The novel Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) was the most popular; others included The Lone Star Ranger (1915), The U.P. Trail (1918), Call of the Canyon (1924), and Code of the West (1934). Prominent among his nonfiction works is Tales of Fishing (1925).* * *
Universalium. 2010.
