The Novel That Set The Pattern For The Modern Western, Riders Of The Purple Sage Was First Published In 1912, Immediately Selling Over A Million Copies. After Saving A Man About To Be Unjustly Whipped, Its Gunman Hero Recounts His Own Endless Search For A Woman Kidnapped Long Ago By The Mormans, In An Epic Story Of Secrecy, Seduction, Captivity, And Escape. About The Author... Zane Grey Was Born In Zanesville, Ohio, The Great-grandson Of The Man Who Settled The Town. After Early Celebrity As A Baseball Player, He Set Up A Dental Practice In New York, Before Turning To Writing. In All He Wrote 58 Novels Of The West, And Was Responsible For Establishing The Western As America's Most Popular Genre. -;the Novel That Set The Pattern For The Modern Western, Riders Of The Purple Sage Was First Published In 1912, Immediately Selling Over A Million Copies. In The Remote Border Country Of South Utah, A Man Is About To Be Whipped By The Mormons In Order To Pressure Jane Withersteen Into Marrying Against Her Will. The Punishment Is Halted By The Arrival Of The Hero, Lassiter, A Gunman In Black Leather, Who Routs The Persecutors And Then Gradually Recounts His Own History Of An Endless Search For A Woman Abducted Long Ago By The Mormons. Secrecy, Seduction, Captivity, And Escape: Out Of These Elements Zane Grey Built His Acclaimed Story Of The American West. -