1872–1939, American writer of Western stories, b. Zanesville, Ohio, as Pearl Zane Gray, grad. Univ. of Pennsylvania, 1896. His melodramatic tales of the West and Southwest are vivid in topographical detail but improbable in character and situation. During his lifetime over 13 million copies of his books were sold, and his works did much to romanticize the popular image of the American West. Grey was best known for Riders of the Purple Sage
See biographies by F. Gruber (1970) and T. H. Pauly (2005); study by C. Jackson (1973, rev. ed. 1989).
The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2012, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.
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