Vital Statistics

     Zane Grey was born in Zanesville, Ohio, on January 31, 1872.  In his youth he was a semi-professional baseball player and studied dentistry on a baseball scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania.  In 1905 he married Lina Roth, and the couple had three children: Romer, Betty and Loren.  Their early married years were spent in Pennyslvania but with the success of Heritage of the Desert in 1910, Grey bought a home in Altadena, California, and a hunting lodge on the Mogollon Rim near Payson, Arizona.  Lina, whom Zane called "Dolly," edited his writing and made deals with the publishers. Zane died of heart failure on October 23, 1939.

His Life

    Grey had a drive to write and through perseverance,  taught himself.  His Zane ancestors were pioneers in the Ohio Valley. and 3 of his early books fictionalized  their adventures. But  Zane Grey became the best-selling Western author of all time and for most of the teens, 20s, and 30s,  at least one of his novels was in the top ten every year. Middleton, NY. The breakthrough success of Heritage of the Desert in 1910 enabled Zane Grey to establish a home in Altadena, California, and a hunting lodge on the Mogollon Rim near Payson, Arizona. But Grey would spend several months each year gathering experiences often in places like Tahiti.   In his own schooner, he set several deep-sea angling records which stood for decades. Nine of his books concerned fishing.

His Work
    In all, he had almost 90 books in print,  which included about 60 Westerns for which he is most remembered.. But his writings included  short story collections, a biography of the young George Washington, juvenile fiction and baseball stories.