Riders of the Purple Sage bears a close relationship with all of Grey's novels.

It is broader in scope and less restricted in plot than his other works, but it shares many of the elements he incorporated in every Western he wrote. Mormonism as a major issue occurs also in The Heritage of the Desert (1910) and in The Rainbow Trail (1915).

Grey did not like Mormons as a rule because he felt that they mistreated women and were religious fanatics. In these three novels he shows the vicious, intolerant nature of fanatical Mormons, suggesting that the Church needs to change by becoming more tolerant to outsiders and less authoritarian to its own members. Later in 1930, however, Grey wrote a short novel, Canyon Walls, in which he pictured young Mormons as honest, sensitive, and friendly.

Grey often let one novel inspire a sequel. His first three novels formed...