Riders of the Purple Sage

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Hesperus Press, 2015 - Fiction - 368 pages

From the author who invented the Western genre comes one of the most iconic novels of all time full of gun-slinging action, romance, and revenge

When Lassiter, a gun-slinging avenger in black with a fearsome reputation, rides into the Mormon village of Cottonwoods in Southern Utah, he finds a town in turmoil. An underhand land battle is in full force. Beautiful young rancher Jane Withersteen is in possession of the richest land holding in the Cottonwoods, but the Mormon church have plans to take control by forcing the unwilling Jane into marrying Elder Tull. Outnumbered and outgunned, Jane sees no escape--until Lassiter arrives. A lone gunman fighting for justice, Lassiter has his own agenda. His sister has been kidnapped by a Mormon proselytizer and he is determined to find out what happened to her. Jane finds herself drawing ever closer to Lassiter while he tries to unravel the complex web of intrigue that underlies the corrupt village. In Lassiter, Zane Grey creates an iconic prototype hero that inspired many books and films. With a complex plot and engaging with issues of morality, isolation, and religion, this book is more than just the first Western--it is a classic.

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About the author (2015)

Zane Grey was born Pearl Zane Gray in 1872, in Zanesville, Ohio. He studied dentistry at the University of Pennsylvania, married Lina Elise Roth in 1905, then moved his family west where he began to write novels. The author of 86 books, he is today considered the father of the Western genre, with its heady romances and mysterious outlaws. Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) brought Grey his greatest popular acclaim. Other notable titles include The Light of Western Stars (1914) and The Vanishing American (1925). An extremely prolific writer, he often completed three novels a year, while his publisher would issue only one at a time. Twenty-five of his novels were published posthumously. His last, The Reef Girl, was published in 1977. Zane Grey died of heart failure on October 23 in Altadena, California, in 1939.

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