Notes
Zane Grey was not only a prolific author of novels, but he also wrote almost as much about his personal life. In addition to the thirty-five Westerns published during his lifetime, he authored nine books about his travels, fishing, and outdoor adventures. Less well known and far more revealing are his many personal journals and the hundreds of letters to and from his wife that both conscientiously saved. When Dolly died in 1957, all of these letters, along with his journals and correspondence from his girlfriends, were still stored at his Altadena residence. Romer inherited the home and its collections, and he did nothing with them until 1968. That year, with the agreement of his siblings Loren (LG) and Betty Grosso, he donated a large number of manuscripts, photographs, scrapbooks, and ephemera to the Ohio Historical Society (OHS) and the Zane Grey Museum in Zanesville, Ohio (ZGM—Z). Sometime between this donation and Romer’s sale of the house in 1970, Betty claimed more than half of the letters and several journals, and she elected to burn the letters from her father’s girlfriends. In 1976, when Romer died, Loren inherited the remnants of his collection, much reduced by the donation, loss, theft, and the materials that went to Betty. Several years later, Bridget McMahon, Betty’s granddaughter, typed a large number of Betty’s letters (Bmms) with the intent of publishing them, but she never did. Meanwhile, Joe Wheeler (JW) and Candace Kant (CK), two professors researching Grey, approached Loren and Betty and received permission to photocopy their journals and letters. Each copied large amounts and much that was the same, but each also secured items the other had missed and their combined holdings were well shy of the whole. Since their findings were never published, few outside a narrow circle of collectors and readers have ever known about Grey’s secret life. Even George M. Farley, an avid collector and promoter of Grey, who had a photocopy of McMahon’s typescript and later donated it to the Cline Library at Northern Arizona University (NAU), insisted up to his death that Grey’s relationships with other women were paternal and platonic. However, this wall of silence began to crack in 1995 when the Missouri Review, a small journal specializing in original fiction and poetry, published a selection of letters from the McMahon typescript. When I encountered these letters during research into Grey’s fishing, I contacted Professor Philip Rulon at NAU and he generously mailed me a copy of the McMahon typescript. This convinced me to write Grey’s biography and sent me searching for as many letters and journals as I could find. I benefited enormously from the cooperation and generosity of Loren Grey, Candace Kant, Joe Wheeler, George Houle (GH), Pat Friese (PF), and Dan Brock (DB). Over the five years I spent researching and writing this book, the Beinecke Library at Yale University (BY) acquired an important Grey journal, a collection of his letters to Lola Gornall, the many lots of letters that Betty Grosso put up for auction (BY-G), and another large segment of letters that was sold independently (BY-G2). The footnotes that follow employ these parenthetical abbreviations. I have tried to provide the location of actual journals and letters, but sales and disappearance of many items since McMahon, Kant, and Wheeler accessed them have necessitated that I cite their copies instead. In all cases, I have permission from Zane Grey, Inc., to quote from these unpublished documents.
Abbreviations
BY Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
BY-G Grosso Collection (uncatalogued Mss. 261), Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
BY-G2 Additional Grosso (uncatalogued Mss. 529), Beinecke Library, Yale University, New Haven, Conn.
Bmms Bridget McMahon Typescript
CK Candace Kant (photocopies of Grey letters and papers)
DB Dan Brock
GH George Houle
JW Joe Wheeler (photocopies of Grey letters and papers)
LDS David Dexter Rust Papers (Ms. 1143), Archives, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah
LG Loren Grey
NAU Ms. 230, Zane Grey Collection, Cline Library, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Ariz.
NYPL Robert Hobart Davis Collection—New York Public Library
OHS Ohio Historical Society, Columbus
OHS 1262 Zane and Dolly Grey Papers (Ms. 1262), Ohio Historical Society
Mss 1262 Zane and Dolly Grey Papers, Letter from Diosus to Zane Grey, 29 March, 1899: Ohio Historical Society
Mss 1262 Zane and Dolly Grey Papers, Letter from Diosus (D.B.B.) to Zane Grey, May, 1902: Ohio Historical Society
Mss 1262 Zane and Dolly Grey Papers, Letter from Diosus to Zane Grey, undated: Ohio Historical Society
Mss 1262 Zane and Dolly Grey Papers, Letter from Zane Grey to Fiancée, undated: Ohio Historical Society
Mss 1262 Zane and Dolly Grey Papers, Notebook of visit to Cave Dwelling: Ohio Historical Society
Mss 1262 Zane and Dolly Grey Papers, Letter from Zane Grey to Dolly Grey, 6 February, 1920: Ohio Historical Society
Mss 1262 Zane and Dolly Grey Papers, Letter from Dolly Grey to Zane Grey, 25 August, 1924: Ohio Historical Society
Mss 1262 Zane and Dolly Grey Papers, Letter from Dolly Grey to Zane Grey, 19 February, 1927: Ohio Historical Society
Mss 1262 Zane and Dolly Grey Papers, “Fading Indian Trails”: Ohio Historical Society
PF Pat Friese
ZGM—L Zane Grey Museum, Lackawaxen, Penn.
ZGM—Z Zane Grey/National Road Museum, Zanesville, Ohio
Introduction
1. Lina Grey, Letter to Dan Beard, November 26, 1939 (Dan Beard Papers, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.).
2. This information is taken from Gruber, Zane Grey, 1. He derived it from Hackett, Fifty Years of Best Sellers, 81–97.
3. Justice, Bestseller Index, 134.
4. This information was also headlined in the New York Times’s obituary of Grey. New York Times, October 22, 1939, 24. See also Publishers Weekly 136 (October 28, 1939), 1698.
5. New York Times, October 22, 1939, 24.
6. Rascoe, “Opie Read and Zane Grey,” 8.
7. New York Times, October 24, 1939, 22.
8. New Yorker 15 (November 4, 1939), 9.
9. There are several other books that cover various aspects of Grey’s biography, but none are comprehensive biographies and the most recent ones are based largely on Gruber and Grey’s published accounts of his experiences: Farley, Many Faces of Zane Grey and Zane Grey: A Documented Portrait; Kerr, Zane Grey, Man of the West; and May, Zane Grey: Romancing the West and Maverick Heart.
10. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, October 13, 1911 (NAU).
11. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, August 29, 1924 (BY-G).
12. Derks, Value of a Dollar, 184–85.
13. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, [1905?] (NAU).
14. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, March 18, [1922?] (OHS).
15. Farley, Many Faces of Zane Grey, 146. Also Ashworth, Arizona Triptych, 181, 208–9. May suspected that these relationships were sexual; see May, Maverick Heart, 81–84.
16. This large collection of photographs involves several hundred negatives and prints. Since most of the materials are a scrambled mass, it is impossible to tell if there are prints of all the negatives—probably not. Most of the photographs are of nude females, and involve more than a dozen different women. A small percentage of the photographs were gathered into ten separate envelopes on which the name of the woman inside was written in Grey’s secret code. Among these names are four about whom I know very little. The early photographs date from Grey’s college years, perhaps earlier, and imitate the nudes in paintings by the masters, but the ones from the 1930s are more pornographic. Only short portions of the ten diaries have been translated, but they make clear that Grey used them to record graphic descriptions of his sexual activities. There are four other notebooks from girlfriends and one of these contains a pornographic story entitled The Harp of Sappho. There is also an array of memorabilia—lockets, strands of hair bound with ribbon, a gold ring from “Golden Fleece” to “Doc Grey” imprinted with the inscription “till death do us part,�
�� etc. I was allowed to examine this collection for three hours and to offer this inventory, but not to quote from the journals or to publish any of the photographs.
17. Lina Grey, Letter to Robert H. Davis, January 4, 1935 (NYPL).
Chapter 1: Wayward Youth: 1872–90
1. Other than a few birth and death dates, there is very little verifiable information about the Zane family prior to Ebenezer. Much of what is known comes from family accounts dating from many years after the period being recalled. Bibliographies of useful sources can be found at the conclusion of the “Betty Zane” and “Ebenezer Zane” entries in American National Biography, vol. 24, 215– 17, 218–19.
2. Farley, Many Faces of Zane Grey, 16. Grey’s belief in his Indian heritage was reinforced by Isaac Zane’s many years among the Wyandots and his marriage to Myeerah.
3. Eckert, Dark and Bloody River, 10–12.
4. A good reconstruction of the actual history of this battle can be found in Hintzen, “Betty Zane, Lydia Boggs, and Molly Scott,” 95–109.
5. Although Grey depicts Betty’s romance with Alfred Clarke in Betty Zane (1903), the actual Betty was only sixteen and unattached at the time of her heroic action. Several years after the battle, she became involved with a man named Van Swearingen and with him had an illegitimate daughter in 1784. Zane’s source for his romance between Betty and Alfred, if he had one, is further complicated by the marriage of Ebenezer’s daughter Rebecca to a John Clarke. I am indebted to Diane Nichols, a genealogist of the Grey family, for information about Van Swearingen.
6. Quotes are from “Ebenezer Zane,” American National Biography, vol. 24, 218– 19.
7. Schneider, National Road, 7–13.
8. Diane Nichols, Samuel Zane Geneology.
9. Liggett’s name is sometimes spelled Ligget or Liggit, and Guttridge has been spelled Guthridge.
10. This information comes from a genealogy by Norris F. Schneider that was based on an earlier one by H. L. Johnson from Pike County.
11. Ida Grey, “Family History” (DB). The credibility of this history is undermined by Ida’s inaccurate mention of the death of Lewis’s mother shortly after his birth. A genealogy of the Gray family in the papers of Norris F. Schneider states that Lewis and Nancy were married in 1825 and had nine children. There exists a family photographs showing Lewis surrounded by his sisters.
12. Ida Grey, “Family History” (DB).
13. Norris F. Schneider, “Father of Zane Grey,” unidentified newspaper article (Norris F. Schneider Papers, mss. 789, OHS). The Zane Grey collection at the OHS contains various clippings about Dr. Gray’s activities in Zanesville dating from the 1860s.
14. Records of Woodlawn Cemetery, Zanesville, Ohio. The Grays saved a Bible given to Ella by her father as an early present.
15. Farley, Many Faces of Zane Grey, 65–67.
16. Lewis M. Gray, “A Short History” (Lewis Gray Papers, mss. 885, box 1, folder 1, OHS).
17. “The Living Past” was first serialized in the Zane Grey Reporter 1 (March, 1986) and 3 (March, 1988). It has never been published in book form. Grey’s first account of his past appeared in a letter he wrote to a clairvoyant named Anna Andre on February 16, 1918 (BY-G). Grey expanded this information into a broadside for a Harper promotion of his books in 1921 and used it for “Zane Grey” in My Maiden Effort, 82. These two articles served as the basis for “Breaking Through,” 11–14, 76–80. Zane Grey is identified as the author, but the article was actually written by an editor named John Pritchett. For this, Pritchett solicited information from other people besides Grey. “Breaking Through” was reprinted as “My Own Life” in a Harper and Brothers booklet entitled Zane Grey: The Man and His Work, 1–19. Grey drew upon these accounts for “The Living Past.”
18. Grey, Tales of Lonely Trails, 185.
19. Mrs. H. H. Johnson, Letter to Zane Grey, January 8, 1906 (Humanities Research Center, University of Texas–Austin).
20. Grey, Tales of Lonely Trails, 66.
21. Zanesville Signal, July 24, 1905, n.p.
22. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, “Christmas, 1904,” Zane Grey Review 12 (June, 1997), 8–9.
23. Zane Grey, Letter to Anna Andre, February 16, 1918 (BY-G).
24. Quoted in Farley, Many Faces of Zane Grey, 64.
25. Timmerman, “Just the Facts, Ma’am,” 12.
26. Ida Gray, “Family History” (DB).
27. In a 1905 letter to Zane, a girlfriend expressed sympathy toward his need for other women and wrote, “I know how you are fighting your inherited trouble.”
28. Even Gruber was inclined to believe that Lewis Gray’s financial reversal was a soured investment. Gruber, Zane Grey, 22.
29. Mowrey, “From G-R-A-Y to GREY,” 6.
30. Gruber stated that Zane changed the spelling of his last name to “Grey” when he opened his dental practice in New York City. Gruber, Zane Grey, 35. This inaccuracy has been much repeated in subsequent explanations of the name change.
Chapter 2: Quest for Direction: 1890–1905
1. Since Zane lived in Columbus a full year longer than he acknowledges in “The Living Past,” this contact from the Dental Association may have occurred later than he remembered. City directories from 1891–95 list Pearl Grey at 108 Lexington Avenue, the same address as the family’s residence, and identify him as “dentist.” The 1893–94 volume also identify R. C. as a dentist for the first time. The amendment of his position to “assistant” for the 1894–95 directory suggests intervention by the Dental Association.
2. An early, unidentified clipping identifies this team as from the “Latin School,” perhaps a variant name.
3. Local newspapers reveal that the City League was not formed until a full year later than Grey indicated and that he and R. C. did not play together on the team as he claimed. Columbus Dispatch, May 4, 1893, 2; May 9, 1893, 2; June 12, 1893, 2; and June 13, 1893, 2.
4. Grey, “Breaking Through,” 76.
5. Ebbeskotte, “Delphos (Ohio) Baseball” is a thorough, detailed account of this season.
6. Delphos Herald, August 31, 1893, 4.
7. In “The Living Past,” Grey says that he was sixteen when he started high school (4, 11). This suggests that he may have been held back a grade, perhaps due to poor academic performance, and started high school a year late. His autobiography does not give his level in school when the family departed for Columbus, but it was probably the middle of his junior year. Despite widespread assumptions that Grey graduated from high school, Grey once admitted that he did not. Zanesville Courier, April 11, 1904, 5.
8. Ohio State University did not have a dental school at that time. See Kock, History of Dental Surgery, 417–617.
9. “Conditions of Admission,” Department of Dentistry, University of Pennsylvania Catalogue and Announcements, 1893–94, 309 (Archives, University of Pennsylvania).
10. Kock, History of Dental Surgery, 484–86.
11. University of Pennsylvania Catalogue and Announcements, 1893–94, 299.
12. Clipping file, “Franklin Field” (Archives, University of Pennsylvania).
13. On Mondays and Tuesdays at 10:00 A.M. Grey had general chemistry with Professor Wormley. At 3:30 P.M. on Mondays and Wednesdays he had anatomy with Pierson; at 4:30 P.M., physiology with Reichert; and finally mechanical dentistry and metallurgy with Essig at 5:30 P.M. On Tuesdays and Thursdays at 4:30 P.M. he had operative dentistry with Darby, and on Wednesdays at noon he had histology with Formad. University of Pennsylvania Catalogue and Announcements, 1893–94, 302.
14. “Zane Grey” Harper Promotion [1921?]. Also Grey, “Breaking Through,” 78.
15. Light, Cultural History of Baseball, 568–69.
16. Ortho, History of Athletics at Penn, 147.
17. Pennsylvanian, March 21, 1895, 1. Also Weston, New Phillies Encyclopedia, 24–26.
18. Columbus Dispatch, May 28, 1894, 7.
19. Timmerman, “America’s Pastime,” 2. Also Delphos Herald, August 9, 1894, 4.
&nb
sp; 20. Delphos Herald, August 8, 1894, 4.
21. Ibid., August 9, 1894, 4.
22. Ibid.
23. Timmerman, “America’s Pastime,” 2. Also Ebbeskotte, “Delphos (Ohio) Baseball,” 13.
24. Delphos Herald, September 19, 1894, 4.
25. Pennsylvanian, May 3, 1895, 2.
26. Ibid., September 27, 1895, 1.
27. Timmerman, “America’s Pastime,” 2, and “Just the Facts, Ma’am,” 12.
28. Pennsylvanian, February 10, 1896, 1.
29. Ibid., February 27, 1896, 1.
30. Clipping, Zane Grey, Baseball Scrapbook (Zane Grey Papers, mss. 296, box 12, folder 32, OHS).
31. Pennsylvanian, May 10, 1896, 1.
32. Philadelphia Ledger, May 19, 1896, 17.
33. Grey, Baseball Scrapbook (Zane Grey Papers, mss. 296, OHS).
34. Philadelphia Ledger, June 11, 1896, 16.
35. This certificate is at ZGM—Z.
36. Grey, Baseball Scrapbook (Zane Grey Papers, mss. 296, OHS).
37. Ibid. Also Wheeler, “Two Roads,” 32–33.
38. Kock, History of Dental Surgery, 1022. This book reveals that this examination was first instituted in 1895.
39. This license is displayed at ZGM—Z.
40. Grey, Baseball Scrapbook (Zane Grey Papers, mss. 296, OHS).
41. Gruber, Zane Grey, 37.
42. Quoted in Wheeler, “Two Roads,” 33.
43. Newark Evening News, April 28, 1898, 11.
44. Ibid., July 6, 1898, 2.
45. Timmerman, “America’s Pastime,” 2.
46. Orange Journal, June 25, 1898, 3.
47. Zane Grey, Letter to Anna Andre, February 16, 1918 (BY-G).
48. Ibid.
49. Diosus (D. B. B.), Letter to Zane Grey, March 29, 1899 (mss. 1262, OHS).
50. Interview with George Fruel, Pike County historian, October 10, 2002.
51. Aron, Working at Play, 5.
52. In chapter 6, Aron discusses the popularity of camping during the late nineteenth century. Aron, Working at Play, 156–77.
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