BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat

Subject: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: olddude
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 11:52 AM

Love his works, I have the first book he ever published a 1904 edition of Betty Zane. He could not find a publisher so he published it himself. Very very rare edition. I bet I read everything he ever wrote. Any other fans here?

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: olddude
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 12:51 PM

1903 edition sorry ... nobody else likes Zane Grey ... gosh I am going to cry

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: kendall
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 12:54 PM

I used to read him often when I wanted to go out west and be a cowboy. My favorite western song is still Billy Venero.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: olddude
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 01:00 PM

For sure captain, especially Arts version

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 01:07 PM

Somewhere there is a list I made of all his books.
I gave my elder son, the fisherman, Grey's books on fishing.

His "Betty Zane" first edition signed presentation copy to another writer is on offer by a dealer in San Francisco for $3750. Saddle up old Paint and ride out there to buy it.
A copy in New York with a presentation letter signed by Grey is bargain-basement pticed at $2875.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: olddude
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 01:15 PM

Wow, mine is probably a grand or so I guess

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 02:31 PM

Hey, olddude, I liked several of his books including Mysterious Rider, Riders of the Purple Sage, and Under the Tonto Rim. I also like Louis L'Amour, who owes a huge debt to Grey.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: olddude
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 03:34 PM

Thanks EJ
send me your mailing address via PM. I have something for you

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: akenaton
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 04:00 PM

My grandfather loved Zane Grey westerns....and as a child he would read chapters to me at bedtime, I've never forgotten the descriptions and excitement of these books,tho' its years since I've read one.
Thanks for reviving the memory.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Wesley S
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 04:22 PM

All of the cats at Hemmingways house in Key West are named after authors or actors. There used to be a large gray cat named Zane Gray there about 14 or 15 years ago. Hard to say if it's still alive.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: dick greenhaus
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 05:19 PM

I've always been a big Zane Grey fan. I love his plot.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Allen in Oz
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 07:36 PM

Zane Grey used to come out here to Bermagui (on the South Coast of Australia) many years ago for big game fishing. Always a welcome guest and his exploits were often recorded in local newspapers. Nice to see that he is still remembered.

AD

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: kendall
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 08:20 PM

He had a way of describing a scene that made you feel like you were there.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Little Hawk
Date: 10 Jul 11 - 11:47 PM

I read a whole bunch of Zane Grey books a few years back, and I liked them a lot, Dan, although they present an oddly romanticized view of the Old West. It isn't very realistic in some respects, but it IS good storytelling, and you can tell that he cared deeply about the moral lessons carried in those tales. Riders Of The Purple Sage is a classic. There's another one, I think it's called The Border Legion...great story! Then there's the one about the guy and his faithful mule trying to survive in the wilderness, that's a beauty.

In his stories there's a courtly sense of medieval honor almost like you were reading a tale about Robin Hood, but it's happening in the Wild West. Very interesting. His deep love for the land and the time is plainly evident.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: kendall
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 06:48 AM

Blood & guts, violence and sex is what sells these days. Sad.

I was talking to Ruth Moore, a Maine writer about books and she commented that her books don't sell well anymore. I told her the reason for that is simple, no violence or sex in them. She replied, "I write about what I know, and I have had no experience with either."

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: maeve
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 07:14 AM

Dan, TL and I like Zane Grey's books, though we prefer Ralph Connor's; used to have quite a few of his.

Kendall, I buy Ruth's books when I find them in good condition. Many of them have been read to pieces. She and Judy B. Goodenough are two of the reasons I moved here.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: frogprince
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 07:52 AM

I read a pile of Z.G. in my seondary school years. The last couple of years I've picked up a couple, and they've been the wrong ones. The narratives have been so buried in the moral struggle stuff that they're barely readable. I don't think thr others I read could have been that extreme, or I can't see how I would have enjoyed them as much back when. Of those I've read, I alwaya thought Riders Of The Purple Sage stood out as strongest.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: bobad
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 08:46 AM

I visited his house on Catalina Island.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 12:12 PM

On the flip side of Zane Grey, I really like the writing of Annie Proulx. Most of you will know her as the author of Brokeback Mountain. Her version of the west is nothing like Grey's for sure. Most of her stories are set in the Wyoming of the last 30 years or so, and have all of the grit, black humor, and distinctive character of that part of the country, tinged with an occasionally surrealistic view. She also won the Pulitzer for The Shipping News, a fascinating novel that takes place in Newfoundland.
I find an interesting correlation between Proulx's writing and the songs of James McMurtry, if any of you know him.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 12:20 PM

I was a bigger fan of: Will Henry

I've still got about a dozen of his books that I'll get around to reading one of these days.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Wesley S
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 12:22 PM

Oops - that was me. I guess I lost my cookie when we had a power failure.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Ernest
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 01:49 PM

Read and liked a lot of them when I was younger...can?t remember all the titles and those books are at my mothers place so I can`t look em up now. I remember one non fiction about catching panthers for a zoo...

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 03:15 PM

Annie Proulx will go down as a great writer, as will McMurtry. Her "Close Range" Wyoming stories are classic.
McMurtry paints pictures which remind me of the times when robber merchants and ranchers were fighting for control in the southwest, and the Lincoln County War spelled doom for young men like William Bonney who got caught up in it.

Romantic it may seem, but Zane Grey and Owen Wister painted a different picture, that of the settling of the west by settlers wresting a living from an unforgiving land.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Penny S.
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 03:18 PM

I've only read two, Riders of the Purple Sage, and its sequel, as that was all there was in the library. I wouldn't have looked for it, only there was a film of the first, and commentary about possible interference in the plot, so I wanted to read the original.

Penny

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Alice
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 08:39 PM

Dan, I think you would really like an early 1900's Montana writer named B. M. Bower. I like Bower's westerns even better than Zane Gray.

The stories were written from life experience, intimate knowledge of ranch life, and as the series of books showed over the decades Bower wrote, the impact of homesteaders, the early days of silent pictures when movie men came to Montana to make films and use the cowboys for actors.

Bower was a friend of the artist Charles M. Russell, who illustrated some of the books. I have one of the old books illustrated by Russell. I collect the old hard bound B. M. Bower books whenever I can find one, as they show up in antique and thrift stores here. I've been reading them since I was child, as my parents collected them, too.

A running theme of some of the novels was the Flying U Ranch, the ranch hands referred to by their peers as the "happy family", the cowboy who was also an artist named Chip Bennett, and a host of other characters who are honestly the real thing.

The Western Montana College in Dillon, Montana, has the complete collection of Bower books in their library, and quite a bit of historical information about the author.

The reason Bower may not have become as famous as Zane Gray is that B. M. Bower was Bertha Bower, a woman whose publisher used her initials and kept her gender hidden in order to market the books.

You can read many of her novels online.

I would start with "Chip of the Flying U".

Mudcatter open mike was able to find a few more for me as she has a resource for old collectible books in northern Calif.

Here is a link to read the books and her bio for free online:
http://www.online-literature.com/bm-bower/

After you have read a few, I'd like to know what you think.
One that I own that is not in the list of titles at the free read web site is called The Adam Chasers, about an archaeologist in the west. There are many more books than those listed at that link.

Alice

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 08:51 PM

Thanks, Alice. It looks like a subscription is necessary, but the fee is low.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Alice
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 09:00 PM

You can click on the chapters on the left side of the web page, Q, and read the books for free, if you don't want to pay for "ad free" pages.

A.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: olddude
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 09:02 PM

Alice
I am going to download the book and read it ... sounds wonderful
thank you my dear friend

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Alice
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 09:04 PM

B. M. Bower was born a year before Zane Grey, so they were contemporaries, but she lived the life of the west in Montana, writing with more depth of character and the honest "sound" of the west, which I think is why I enjoy her books more than Zane Grey's. Zane Grey had good promoters, but not the authentic feel of western life that I find in Bower.

A.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Alice
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 09:35 PM

Of the books you can read free online at that site, these are the ones I recommend that start out with Chip of the Flying U and then continue with some of the same characters of the Flying U Ranch.


Chip of the Flying U (click on chapters on left side of page to read)

Flying U Ranch

Happy Family

The Lonesome Trail

The Phantom Herd

A movie maker making a western is looking for his cast...

"Where would you go to find them boys now?" the dried little man questioned mournfully. "The Rocking R's gone into sheep, and the old boys have all left. The Cross L moved up into Canada, Lord knows how they're making out; I don't. Only outfit in northern Montana I know that has hung together at all is the Flying U. Old man Whitmore, he's hangin' on by his eyewinkers to what little range he can, and is going in for thoroughbreds. Most of his boys is with him yet, they tell me--"

"What they doing? Still riding?" Luck let out a long breath and lighted his cigarette. A little flare of hope had come into his eyes.

The Flying U's Last Stand


Alice

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Alice
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 09:41 PM

That quote about the movie maker is from "The Phantom Herd".

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: olddude
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 09:46 PM

Awesome thank you my friend

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: olddude
Date: 11 Jul 11 - 09:47 PM

been getting a lot of reading time with my wife doing the chemo here lately, this book will be a great distraction for sure. thanks again

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: kendall
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 09:41 AM

Maeve, I have some of Ruths books that I would loan you.
My favorite is Speak to the winds.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Little Hawk
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 10:49 AM

I'm starting to read "Chip of the Flying U". Seems like a good story. I like the picturesque depiction of all the various characters. Female authors really have a gift for appreciating the subtle interplay between different personalities.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: maeve
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 11:30 AM

Thank you very much, Kendall. I appreciate your generous offer. I'm hoping to have time to read this winter. I did find a copy of her biography. You and Gordon are in there!

Meanwhile, back to the ranch...

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Alice
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 12:05 PM

I got my old copy of Chip out last night and even though I've read it numerous times since I was a kid, I could not put it down.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 02:01 PM

Noticed on Abebooks that several of Bower's books are still popular, and used pbs of recent editions are $1.00 or so. I like to have books 'in hand', so will order some.

Try Ernest Thompson, The Preacher of Cedar Mountain, also titled "The Sky Pilot." Excellent story, 'romantic' back woods I guess it would be called today.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 07:05 PM

Fans of Proulx and McMurtry are bound to enjoy All the Pretty Horses by Cormac MacCarthy. I give it 5 stars!

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: olddude
Date: 12 Jul 11 - 08:22 PM

Another one I will get EJ   thanks bro

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Lonesome EJ
Date: 15 Jul 11 - 12:06 PM

Received the package, Dan. Like holding history in your hands, indeed! Thanks so much. Have a little unfinished business w/ a Mr Sagan, but Mr Grey is next.

EJ

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: olddude
Date: 15 Jul 11 - 12:42 PM

most welcome EJ

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Little Hawk
Date: 16 Jul 11 - 01:42 AM

Dan, if you are looking for truly inspiring reading, there's something I could suggest, but it's not a western.

It's the book "Joan of Arc" by Mark Twain. It is inspiring, uplifting, also heartbreaking, and absolutely remarkable. Twain's only error really is that he probably romanticized Joan too much, basically making her a "perfect" person, but it's still a magnificent piece of writing.

Then follow it up by reading Bernard Shaw's book "Saint Joan" which includes his 1923 play of the same name and a very lengthy introduction which explains his views on the life of Joan of Arc, its significance in history, and how very different modern society is now from the society of her time. In some ways we have advanced, mostly in terms of the physical sciences and technology. In other ways we have regressed tragically in that we have, as a civilization, almost completely lost our spiritual grasp of the tremendous value of our own lives beyond material considerations. We have taken human who were once angels in the making and turned them into mere "consumers", taken something utterly noble in the human spirit and turned it into a meaningless speck of sand on the beach, a speck that we stare at under a microscope. Shaw expresses this more clearly and more lucidly than I've ever heard it expressed before. He captures the essence of the modern problem.

He also points out where Mark Twain erred in over-idealizing Joan, thus turning her into an ideal heroine more of Twain's own social age than of the age Joan lived in...but at the same time he acknowledges that she was one of those very rare beings, a person of genius surrounded by ordinary little minds (some of them very mean) who had one of two reactions in the face of her genius: They either worshipped her and followed her without question, as did her troops and those who assisted her...or they feared and hated her for showing them up so badly, and yearned for her destruction. The latter group did destroy her, but her work was accomplished anyway.

That's exactly the same thing that happened in the case of both Jesus and Socrates. The little, frightened, narrow minds of the meaner conventional people around felt threatened by the power of the extraordinary changes in thinking they wrought. Those minds reacted the same as the swine before whom pearls are cast. They turned on the one who cast the pearls and put him (or her) to death.

It's dangerous to be absolutely remarkable and to do wonderful and powerful things in this world. But if you are able to be that way, it's also unavoidable. Love risks all.

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: olddude
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 05:13 PM

Latest flea market find for a buck, True 1912 first edition. Appraised value from the net at antique books 3,000 dollars ... now that is a find for my collection

riders of the purple sage

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: olddude
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 05:27 PM

actually as much as I want to keep it , I will probably send it to the auction house. It can help sick kids with that kind a money. when you visit flea markets, find the books, they give them away and you can get some really valuable stuff

Subject: RE: BS: any other Zane Grey Fans on the Cat
From: Q (Frank Staplin)
Date: 23 Jul 11 - 05:44 PM

Very good! Someone will suggest Ebay, but collectors who buy rare books will only trust a reputable dealer or auction house.

Besides the auction house, the other way is to sell the book to a major dealer. You will get about 40 per cent of the appraised value, if the book is sought after, maybe less, but headaches are avoided.
The auction house takes a big cut, (besides charging a buyers premium) so check out NY-LA dealers.