Zane Grey's masterpiece, restored to its original version. Jack Hare is an Easterner who has come west for his health. In Salt Lake City he is mistaken by Dene's outlaw gang for a spy and must flee the town to escape them. He is found suffering from exhaustion and exposure in rough country by the wealthy Mormon rancher August Naab. As he is nursed back to health at Naab's ranch, Hare becomes aware that Naab's holdings are being threatened by both Dene's rustlers and an unscrupulous Gentile land-grabber named Holderness. ...
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Zane Grey's masterpiece, restored to its original version. Jack Hare is an Easterner who has come west for his health. In Salt Lake City he is mistaken by Dene's outlaw gang for a spy and must flee the town to escape them. He is found suffering from exhaustion and exposure in rough country by the wealthy Mormon rancher August Naab. As he is nursed back to health at Naab's ranch, Hare becomes aware that Naab's holdings are being threatened by both Dene's rustlers and an unscrupulous Gentile land-grabber named Holderness. Hare also comes to know Mescal, originally an orphan of a Spanish father and Navajo mother, taken in by Naab and promised in marriage to his eldest son, Snap. August Naab does not believe in violent resistance to Holderness's incursions. To save Hare from Dene and his gang, Naab has him accompany Mescal to his sheep camp, located in an isolated valley fastness, and it is there that the two fall in love, even though Mescal knows that she is morally bound to marry Snap Naab. Packed with adventure, action, emotion, and unforgettable characters, Desert Heritage represents one of Zane Grey's finest literary achievements. And its vivid evocation of the Painted Desert of Arizona is without equal in the genre. Skyhorse Publishing is proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction that takes place in the old West. Westerns--books about outlaws, sheriffs, chiefs and warriors, cowboys and Indians--are a genre in which we publish regularly. Our list includes international bestselling authors like Zane Gray and Louis L'Amour, and many more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.
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Add this copy of Desert Heritage: a Western Story (Five Star Western to cart. $1.49, good condition, Sold by Poquette's Books rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Dewitt, MI, UNITED STATES, published 2010 by Five Star.
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With the possible exception of Riders of the Purple Sage, there is no Zane Grey novel better than Desert Heritage, and then not by much. However, for me it is the best. The West presented by Zane Grey was the real West he came to know and love, and it shows in his works by the descriptions of landscape, the people who lived there, and the kind of struggles they faced.
This novel is what I call his first true "western", and has all of the things a reader of westerns wants. There is the internal conflict of John Hare as he seeks his place in life; many villains to overcome; romance; the day to day activities of family life; and great animals who aid their owners. For the record, I am a traditionalist when it comes to what westerns I read.
Zane Grey had already written the Ohio Valley Trilogy- Betty Zane, The Spirit of the Border, The Last Trail, and a partial "biography" of Buffalo Jones-The Last of the Plainsmen. It was with Buffalo Jones he went west in 1907 to explore the country and to meet the people who would become characters in his books.
According to information I have learned, the actual creation and writing of this book went fairly quickly. But Harpers editor Ripley Hitchcock made substantial changes to both the text and the title. Zane Grey's title was Mescal, after the Indian heroine. Hitchcock titled it The Heritage of the Desert. Harpers sold the novel to Street and Smith's Popular magazine where it was serialized in five parts (5/28/10-7/23/10) then published it in book form in September 1910.
Today, some say, Zane Grey is out-of-date, a writer of fantasy. I say, he was a romantic who believed in what he wrote.
