Grey, Zane (1875-1939)
Author Zane Grey had a significant and lasting influence on American culture. Considered the creator of the modern Western novel, his work shaped the imagery of the West in the popular imagination. Many evaluations of the genre concentrate on the literary attributes of its writers. These literary considerations tend to outweigh the cultural resonance of the Western's popular appeal and often lead to the underrating of Grey's work in particular. As well as his ability to establish place and evoke the landscape of the mythical West, Grey endowed his work with a sense of popular history. He also negotiated cultural tensions that revolve around such issues as the coming of modernity, marriage, religion, and the returning veterans of World War I, which appealed to an exceptionally broad range of readers. He was serialized in the Ladies Home Journal as well as Colliers Country Gentleman and McCalls, and numerous books of his were translated into films, some made by his own company. He insisted that these were shot on location, thus introducing, through the cinema, a very particular visual depiction of the West that still endures. Arizona is now known to tourists as Zane Grey country.
Grey was born in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1875.
