Zane Grey

by Thomas H. Pauly

  The numbers of marlin for these two seasons were equally impressive. Over the 1918 season, 155 were caught.110 On August 31, during a ten-day campout on Clemente, the island that Zane claimed to have been depleted of fish, R. C. set a new record by landing seven marlin in a single day.111 Although neither season produced a broadbill, Zane hooked a monster that he estimated to weigh over 1,000 pounds on July 16, 1919. The leviathan gave him a twelve-hour battle before it snapped his line to pursue some flying fish.112 The exertion of this contest left him unable to move for days and he still hobbled two months later.

  If this fishing and his improved relations with Dolly helped Zane over the emotional anguish of 1916 and 1917, his outlook was also brightened by a new woman who was more of a kindred spirit than anyone so far. Grey’s rift with Elma excluded her from the Long Key trip in January 1918. Instead, he took Mildred Fergerson, Claire Wilhelm, and Dorothy Ackerman. Claire had already been with him on many trips dating back to her 1914 trip to Arizona with her older sister Lillian. As Zane added more women to his retinue, Lillian lost the privileged position that she originally held in 1912, and one of those to supplant her was her own sister. During this period of Grey’s turmoil and rapidly changing allegiances, Claire and Dorothy became close friends. Their spirited, outgoing personalities and enthusiasm for the outdoors made them compatible from the moment they met. They loved riding horses, camping in the wild, and especially fishing. During the 1918 season at Long Key, both graduated from attentive deckhands to accomplished anglers. In February, Claire and Dot each landed big amberjacks, and Dot followed with a barracuda large enough to qualify for one of the buttons of the new club that Zane established.113 Claire bested her catch with a thirty-seven-pound barracuda that proved to be the largest of the season.114 Dorothy and Claire had more success the following summer in Catalina. Dorothy caught a 79-pound tuna and a 145-pound sea bass, and just before they left, Claire hooked the biggest fish of all but unfortunately failed to land it.115

  Over the course of these outings, Dorothy became Zane’s favorite. Even though her success came at Claire’s expense, both women made a valiant effort to preserve their friendship. One sign that Zane had emerged from the extended depression of 1917 was a November entry in his journal of an “exhilarating” horseback ride with Dorothy Ackerman who looked like “a rosy country girl.”116 Claire’s journal reveals that this budding involvement had deepened and intensified by the 1918 visit to Long Key. At a dinner celebration of Zane’s January 31st birthday, Fergie presented him “the picture of Dot he so much wanted.” He displayed more interest in Dorothy’s up-coming birthday than his own. When Dorothy briefly left the table, Zane showed the others a beautiful diamond ring he was planning to present her. At least one person was not impressed. Claire mentions “an unpleasant incident” that occurred during the celebration of Dorothy’s birthday that left her despondent. Though Claire does not say what happened, R. C.’s long walk with Dorothy afterward suggests that Reba, his outspoken wife, probably criticized Zane’s extravagant gift. When Dorothy won a big hand at a communal poker game later that night, Claire said of her friend, “I was glad Dot got it—just topped off the day and made up for all her losses.”117

  Claire Wilhelm (right) and Dorothy Ackerman, Avalon, ca. 1918. (Courtesy of Pat Friese.)

  An earlier entry in Claire’s journal reveals unexplained strains with Zane. Typically, Claire is tight-lipped about her relationship with him, but she acknowledges a heated confrontation during which “the blood was in my head and I wanted to bite.”118 Apparently both put aside their differences for the remainder of their stay in Long Key, but they flared up again in Catalina. Early in August, Zane informed Dolly that he was “thoroughly disgusted with Claire and Mildred S[mith].119 Dolly responded, “What on earth has Claire done now to incur your displeasure? Elma’s and my letters [from you] reek with reference to her fall from grace, but the reason is not forthcoming, and I am consumed with curiosity. Was it a man? Of course, if a lady falls from grace, cherchez l’homme.”120 Zane explained that he had come upon Claire going through Dorothy’s things.121 It is quite possible that Claire was more jealous of Dorothy’s involvement with Zane than she was willing to admit, but Dolly’s conjecture was also perceptive. For over a year, Claire had been dating and writing to Phillips Carlin, whom she would marry three years later. This graduate of New York University had both a stellar academic record and strong feelings for Claire, but was currently working for a failing export company and reluctant to commit.

  Whatever the reasons, Claire’s fall from grace jeopardized her position within Zane’s retinue, upset Lillian, who worried about her security, and elicited a long, impassioned appeal to Zane on her behalf:

  If I have one hope for Claire it is that eventually she will obtain a similar happiness and I realize that you wish that for her too—but there’s no real substance to that wild hysterical love making—haven’t I learned it? I have had several letters from her, and I think the jolt has gone deep. She realizes that she is a woman now—and how much she owes to you and your interest in her. That is one thing that I feel honestly expressed in every line. Doc—I dread to think of what would become of my little sis if you let her go now out of your life and influence. It is a crucial time and from her letters, I feel that she has had a terrible awakening to the reality of the situation and realizes all that she stands to lose, depending on your decision for the future. I beg you, think it over carefully. … She tells me that if she were engaged, which is not the case, she would not think of marrying for some years to come for she wants to make something of her life first.122

  Zane reconsidered his decision to have Claire return to New York. When he left for a fall hunting trip into the Tonto Rim area of Arizona, he took both Claire and Dorothy. But after their outing ended in late October, Claire was sent to stay with Lillian in Crown Point, New Mexico.

  Instead of returning to Middletown and the East after his hunt during the fall of 1918, Zane went to California, and joined his family at a house that he had rented on 2445 Southwestern Avenue in central Los Angeles. Earlier in March, Zane and Dolly had discussed the possibility of relocating the family to southern California. His confidence in this decision was strengthened over the summer by the terrific fishing in Catalina and the promise of his film company. “Mr. Hampton was over to see me,” he informed Dolly. “I am beginning to feel better, and very hopeful, but I’ll have to work as I never worked before. This big motion-picture deal is going to make me stick to work. I will write you more fully as soon as I know the facts. The contracts are being made in New York by Mr. Stern, the Author’s League lawyer. When I get them and the details of the business to follow I will let you know at once.”123 Over the summer, Dolly sold the house in Middletown.124 In September, she, the children, and Ida left Lackawaxen for Los Angeles. R. C. and Reba rented a house nearby. That same fall, Ellsworth, the eldest of the Grey brothers, married Ethel Stern from Middletown, and they relocated to Los Angeles following their honeymoon. For Thanksgiving, there was a big family gathering to celebrate the warm, bright sunshine and their upcoming winter together.

  The final element of Grey’s recovery was a renewed commitment to Westerns. During Zane’s 1918 visit to Long Key, Dolly attended an evening presentation by a spiritualist named Anna Andre, who resided in Placerville, California. Dolly was so impressed she scheduled a private meeting. Upon learning that Andre was an avid reader of her husband’s novels, Dolly commissioned an analysis of his character and arranged for it to be sent to him in early February. Although this contained predictable flattery and conjecture, Andre possessed an uncanny understanding of her subject:

  A noble pride—A generous friend—A just foe—Independent—Courageous—Very sensitive—Vivid imagination—intuitive. … A crying need for a mate—the one woman. … The wrong woman would wreck you—kill your ambition—destroy your hope—It is the face of suffering—pain—sorrow—sometime—somewhere a great trouble fell upon you—You drained a bitt
er cup—The taste will linger until it turns sweet in your soul. … You are now in the full glory of manhood ready to touch the souls of men with the pen of flame—I have not found your equal for delineation of character in all my years of reading authors. … No man can do this unless he KNOWS HOW and to know it he must walk over thorns himself in pain and despair—Not sin—but suffering—To suffer is to understand the feel of pain—TO UNDERSTAND IS TO SYMPATHIZE AND WANT TO HELP THE CRYING NEEDS. That’s why reason tells me you have suffered—Instinctively I know you have.125

  Zane was impressed with her assessment of his strengths and weaknesses and wrote back a long letter of gratitude that dwelled on the strains and discontents behind his success. Andre’s interpretation would not have affected him so much had he not been so distressed by his women problems and his writing. “All these years my idea has been to win a public, and write the powerful psychological novels of love, passion, and tragedy that I am capable of writing,” he explained. He alluded to his failure with Shores of Lethe, and admitted that his editors had urged him to publish this work under a pseudonym. Although everyone at Harpers “was delighted with the wheat novel,”126 he worried that its social criticism clashed with the romantic style of writing he preferred and handled best. “No matter where I would go, or what I would do,” he confessed to Andre, “I could never write Realism.” Before the serialization of Desert even started in May, Zane concluded that he had taken a wrong turn, and credited Andre with inspiring him to return to what he did best:

  I did half lose faith in myself. This is a hard bitter sordid old world. How terribly it needs a love of beauty—an understanding of nature! But what it needs, it repudiates. I meant, I think, to put the best of me, my mature work, in novels of character.

  My ordeal is over.

  If it will be any pleasure or happiness for you to know that your letters have been the dominant force in my decision, you may have them. It is not strange to me that this inspiration should come from a stranger. My relief is immense. My obligation is great.127

  That same day, he wrote to Dolly, “I have gotten that great hold on myself. Dolly, rejoice with me. As far as my work is concerned, my ordeal is over.”128 Four days later, he explained to his publisher Ripley Hitchcock, “You will remember how for years I have been torturing myself, and perplexing you, with an insistent passion to write another kind of novel. I regarded my western stories merely as practice to this important end. … My Ordeal is Over! The decision is made. I shall put all my soul into a future interpretation of the beauty, color, wilderness and passion of the West.129

  Although he had regained confidence and committed himself to another Western, he did not actually begin writing until months later. During the fall he read George Parsons, A Thousand Mile Desert Trip (1918) and in December, he decided that his Western would be about a prolonged desert trek.130 Over the New Year, he and Dorothy went to Palm Springs and stayed at the Desert Inn.131 There they were joined by Sievert Nielsen, a rawboned Norwegian adventurer whom Zane had included on his first two outings in the Tonto Basin.132 By mid-January, Grey was back in Altadena and ready to begin. In his journal he wrote:

  Today after years of plan[ning], and months of thought, and weeks of travel, reading, I began the novel that I have determined to be great.

  It was with singular fire, sweetness, life and joy that I began to write. None of that poignant worry, pain, fuss, or vacillation so characteristic of me at the outset of work! I have made a plan.

  This novel will not be great unless I have absolute control and restraint; and I am absolutely determined that it will be a great novel.133

  In mid-March of 1919, after two months of struggle and faltering progress, he went off again with Nielsen, who had assembled mules and supplies for an outing. At Death Valley Junction, they loaded and went for a relatively uneventful four-day outing into the area of Furnace Creek and the Panamint Mountains.134 Two more months of hard work and bipolar swings enabled him to finish his new novel at midnight on May 29th.135

  Wanderer of the Wasteland (1923) is one of Grey’s finest Westerns, certainly the best from this period of his career. Using words the way an impressionist painter dabs his oils, he serves up a masterly portrait of the most forbidding environment in the Southwest. For fourteen years, his protagonist Adam Larey roams a vast unmapped desert that is parched, desolate, and menacing, but he discovers it to be colorful, invigorating, and accommodating—enabling him to flee his haunted past, to salve his tortured psyche, and to discover a wealth of adventure.

  This story’s imaginative, self-serving conflation of Grey’s recent ordeal resonated with a personal significance that had been sorely missed in his recent efforts. Like Buck in The Lone Star Ranger, Adam is another alienated victim of injustice, but his prolonged quest for understanding and acceptance is sustained by the many women who fall in love with him. Early in the story, Adam falls in love with Margarita, but his devilish brother Guerd claims that he can steal her away, and does so with a few words of affection. Furious over this theft, Adam shoots him, and guiltily flees into the desert to become “Wansfell, the Wanderer.” When a rattlesnake bite leaves him unconscious, a young Indian named Oella finds him, nurses him back to health, and welcomes him into her tribe. Adam is flattered when her father, the chief, consents to a marriage with his daughter, but he explains that he is an outcast and must leave. His decision breaks Oella’s heart and she dies.

  After eight years of wandering that harden him into a strong, resourceful man of the desert, he learns about a contentious husband and wife who live at the base of a mountain in a remote section of the desert. He goes to offer help, and bonds with the wife Magdalene, who tells him about her daughter by another man and the abuse her husband has inflicted as punishment. When her husband finally murders her, Adam kills him and resumes his wandering.

  Next, he rescues a fourteen-year-old girl from bandit kidnappers, and returns her to her ailing mother. When the mother dies three years later, the daughter confesses her love for him, but he pushes her away with an explanation that he is old enough to be her father. During a chance meeting with Magdalene’s missing daughter, she recognizes him as Wansfell, and asks him to take her to her mother’s grave. Soon she too wants him to “make her a woman.” Still too guilt-ridden to commit, he leaves, this time to hunt for the grave of his slain brother. Now, fourteen years after the terrible event that had turned him into an outcast and wanderer, he learns that his brother was never killed and is still alive. He suddenly realizes that his self-imposed exile and abandoned relationships have been “a terrible mistake.” At this moment of discovery that concludes the story, Grey does not say whether Adam’s ordeal is over.

  Like the romances in Riders of the Purple Sage, The Light of Western Stars, and The Rainbow Trail, Adam’s involvements were inspired and shaped by Grey’s personal life, but few readers have ever sensed this connection because it is so indirect and so veiled. Grey was straining so hard to overcome his own torment that even he did not fully comprehend these self-serving murmurings from his unconscious.136 On a conscious level, he was uncomfortably aware that his previous Westerns had not expressed anything important or meaningful to him. He was also upset over the current direction of American culture and deeply frustrated by his inability to complete his novel of social protest. Finally, in Wanderer of the Wasteland, he was able to speak his mind, channeling into Adam’s ordeal the turbulence of his personal life. Later, when he drew upon his distress again to finish his novel of social protest, the result was much stranger.

  6

  Calamity: 1920–23

  Days and days pass! I have been filled with remorse, and obsessed by a driving passion, and prey to endless pangs. Besides I have not been well. Ah! What a battle life is! I am so full of wildness. I have only begun to find strength, and then recurrent spells are more terrible as the years go by. 1923! Year of loss and pain and realization! What yet has it in store?

  —Diary, 1923–39, November 24, 1923
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  By 1920, the forty-seven-year-old and still youthful Zane Grey was on top and in charge, and he had no inkling of disaster on the horizon. After struggling with rejection and disappointment for the first ten years of his writing career, and then capitalizing on his hard-won advances during the years spanned by World War I, he now confronted a clamoring demand for anything he wrote. During a visit to New York City in January 1920, he reflected in his journal on the intoxicating effect of the intense competition for his work:

  I seem to find myself a name to reckon with in the world of publishers. I have two offers, three perhaps, that are larger than any ever offered an American writer. I am in the throes of struggle with Harpers—they to retain me at their figures, and I to get what I want and deserve, or go to someone else. They tell me that any publishing house would lose money, or could afford to do so, just to get my name at the head of their list. This to me seems exaggeration. But it thrills me. I believe my long-sought-for goal is in sight. And I shall work as never before!1