65. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, February 22, 1916 (BY-G).
66. Grey, “Sailfish,” Tales of Fishes, 85.
67. “Sailfish,” Recreation 53 (December, 1916), 871. Grey deleted this comment from his article when he included it in Tales of Fishes.
68. Grey, “Two Fights with Swordfish,” in Tales of Fishes, 58.
69. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, September 21, 1916 (BY-G).
70. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, January 23, 1917 (CK).
71. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, October 1, 1916 (CK).
72. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, January 25, 1917 (BY-G).
73. Because Claire was born in 1898, she was sixteen at the time of this trip. In an unfinished autobiographical sketch, she wrote about her first trip with Zane in 1914, “I was invited to go with Lillian, my sister, to Arizona when I was about 13 years old … [and] I had my 14th birthday on the trip” (PF). Like Zane, who lowered his age by three years, she consistently presented herself as two years younger than she actually was.
74. Interview with Loren Grey, January 18, 2002.
75. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, February 17, [1916?] (LG). By 1919, the membership list for Long Key included such prominent Easterners as J. S. Auchincloss, A. H. Canfield, B. W. Croninshield, I. A. Filene, Isaac Guggenheim, Gifford Pinchot, and Carl McFadden.
76. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, September 9, 1916 (BY-G2).
77. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, August 14, 1916 (BY-G2). The only surviving letter from Emmeline to Grey is a lengthy protestation of her love dating from three months later, November 1, 1916 (BY-G2). With it are two pages written in secret code, one of the earliest surviving examples of it.
78. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, August 21, 1916 (BY-G).
79. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, September 12, 1916 (BY-G2).
80. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, September 21, 1916 (Bmms).
81. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, January 25, 1917 (Bmms).
82. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, February 19, 1917 (BY-G).
83. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, February 28, 1917 (LG). Conscious of the secret code Zane had been using with his girlfriends, Dolly sent Zane a letter with drawn figures enacting a message. Zane’s letter of response included this interpretation of her meaning.
84. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, March 14, 1917 (LG).
85. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, March 17, 1917 (BY-G2).
86. Ibid.
87. Grey, Journal 1917–22, April 3–7, 1917 (JW).
88. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, February 16, [1918] (BY-G).
89. Grey, Journal, 1912–15, March 25, 1914, and March 21, 1915 (GH).
90. Ibid., July 7, 1917.
91. Spokesman Review, July 16, 1917, n.p.
92. Grey, Desert of Wheat, 239.
93. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, June 20, 1918 (LG). The section to which Dolly refers was excised from chapter 22 where Lenore admits her love for Kurt.
94. Grey’s journals in secret code about his sexual experiences affirm his interest in erotic descriptions and his suppressed talent for them.
95. Funeral services for Alice Zane Grey were held July 25, 1917. Middletown Daily Argus, July 24, 1917, 6.
96. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, July 25, 1917 (BY-G).
97. Wilhelm, Journal, 1917—Catalina, July 27, 1917 (PF). Also Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, July 27, 1917 (BY-G).
98. Grey, “Swordfish, the Royal Purple Game of the Sea,” 255.
99. Grey, Journal 1917–22, July 27–August 3, 1917 (JW).
100. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, August 4, 1917 (BY-G).
101. Wilhelm, Journal, 1917—Catalina, August 4, 21–26 (PF).
102. Claire says that thirty-six tuna were caught that day and that August 13 was the most productive day ever. Ibid., August 13, 36.
103. Ibid., August 17–September 28. Also Grey, “Colorado Trails,” in Tales of Lonely Trails, 18–56.
104. Grey, Journal, 1917–22, October 1, 1917 (JW).
105. Ibid., October 22, 1917.
106. Catalina Islander, December 4, 1917, 3; August 20, 1918, 1; and October 8, 1918, 1.
107. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, August 15, 1918 (BY-G2).
108. Grey, “Big Tuna,” in Tales of Fishes, 239 and 249. Since “Big Tuna” was originally published in May 1919, Grey had to be discussing the 1918 season. Also Catalina Islander, August 20, 1918, 1.
109. Catalina Islander, June 10, 1919, 1. Tuna Club records say that Grey earned a red button on July 27,1918, and was awarded the blue button July 22, 1919. Macrate, History of the Tuna Club, 149–50. This information is at odds with Zane’s claims and information published in the Catalina Islander. Perhaps Macrate reversed the dates for the red and blue buttons.
110. Catalina Islander, October 8, 1918, 1.
111. Grey, “Swordsmen of the Sea,” Field and Stream 23 (March, 1919), 820–25. Grey entitled this account “Seven Marlin Swordfish in One Day” when he included it in Tales of Fishes, 197–215.
112. Catalina Islander, July 22, 1919, 1.
113. Wilhelm, Journal, 1918—Long Key, 132–33 (PF). This same day, both women and Fergie dressed in middies and posed for the photograph with Zane on pages 12–13.
114. Ibid., 160–63. This achievement is credited to “Williams” in the first booklet of the Long Key Fishing Club, a modification of the German name of Wilhelm that was probably done to avoid the stigma provoked by the ongoing war. In an undated letter from around 1930, Zane wrote, “Claire, you were some punkins with a rod.”
115. Wilhelm, Journal, 1918—Out West, July 13, 30; August 1, 65; and August, 22, 116 (PF). About this fish, Claire wrote, “I experienced the queerest sensations and thrills, [and] seemed to lose control of myself with excitement and my knees shook dreadfully.”
116. Grey, Journal, 1917–22, November 26, 1917 (JW). Over the summer of 1917, Dolly recorded in her journal numerous visits by Dorothy to Lackawaxen.
117. Wilhelm, Journal, 1918—Long Key, 55–56, 61 (PF).
118. Ibid., 21.
119. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, August 13, 1918 (CK).
120. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, July 22, 1918 (LG).
121. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, July 30, 1918 (BY-G2).
122. Lillian Wilhelm Robertson, Letter to Zane Grey, August 24 and 26, 1918 (CK).
123. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, July 8, 1918 (BY-G2).
124. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, July 5, 1918 (BY-G2).
125. Anna Andre, “Character Reading,” February 4, 1918 (BY-G).
126. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, August 21, 1918 (BY-G2).
127. Zane Grey, Letter to Anna Andre, February, 16, 1918 (BY-G). Anna Andre was very upset when Wanderer of the Wasteland was published and Zane dedicated the novel to his wife rather than to her.
128. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, February 16, 1918 (LG).
129. Zane Grey, Letter to Ripley Hitchcock, February 20, 1918 (BY-G).
130. Grey, Journal, 1917–22, December 5, 1918 (JW).
131. Zane Grey, Letter to Claire Wilhelm, January 12, 1919 (PF).
132. Nielsen’s grandfather graduated from a naval academy in Norway and later became president of that country’s Parliament. In 1913, after years of working on ships and sailing the world, he went searching for gold in western Mexico. When he read Desert Gold, Sievert wrote Zane about his adventures and Zane invited him to Catalina, probably in 1917 or 1918. North, “Zane Grey’s Mysterious Guide,” 9 and 11. Also Grey, “Death Valley” and “Tonto Basin,” in Tales of Lonely Trails, 188–89, 364–93.
133. Grey, Journal, 1917–22, January 19, 1919 (JW). This passage and Zane’s notes for the next five months were reprinted with substantial editorial reduction in Gruber, Zane Grey, 140–53.
134. Grey, “Death Valley,” Tales of Lonely Trails, 374.
135. Grey, Journal, 1917–22, May 29, 1919 (JW).
136. If Grey did n
ot realize how self-serving his story was, he certainly was aware that his own relations with women were influencing it. During a period of despondency over how to proceed, he spent a day reviewing his collection of letters and photographs of his girlfriends. A month later, he reflected on the anguish channeled into this novel and wrote: “Have I loved and trusted and reverenced women in vain? It seems I have. … If there has been harm it is already done. Perhaps a few days or a week will lighten the darkness. Now comes my ordeal! It is even greater than ever. I imagined I had long ago reached and passed the worst. Alas! That was an illusion. … Live some of the struggles of my book people. Write my agony in the novel I am now working on.” Ibid., April 17 and May 17, 1919.
Chapter 6: Calamity: 1920–23
1. “Zane Grey Welcomes 1920,” The Zane Grey Review 10 (December, 1994), 1.
2. Ibid., 3.
3. Mott, History of American Magazines vol. 4, 434–35.
4. “Zane Grey Welcomes 1920,” The Zane Grey Review 10 (December, 1994), 3.
5. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, August 7, 1918 (BY-G2).
6. Thomas Wells, Letter to Zane Grey, April 23, 1919 (LG).
7. For this event, Grey wrote an article entitled “Why I Write Western Stories.” It, along with a description of the event, appeared in The American News Trade Journal 3 (May, 1921), 3. See also Catalina Islander, June 7, 1921, 1, and Zanesville Signal, March 29, 1921, 5.
8. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, March 7, 1920 (Waverly Auction, February 6, 2003, lot no. 172).
9. Gruber, Zane Grey, 154.
10. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, April 10, 1920. Quoted in Gruber, Zane Grey, 170.
11. Grey, Journal, 1920, April 11, 1920 (GH).
12. Zane Grey, Financial Records (DB).
13. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, January 11, 1923 (BY-G).
14. Zane Grey, Financial Notebook (GH). In 1918, R. C. estimated that Grey would be earning $500,000 in five years, and Zane branded him “assinine.”
15. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, February 27, 1920 (JW).
16. Catalina Islander, August 3, 1920, 3.
17. Builder and Contractor, August 25, 1908, 4, and June 3, 1909, 4.
18. Unidentified clipping, Altadena Historical Society.
19. Pasadena Star News, August 16, 1920, n.p.
20. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, September 19, 1920 (BY-G2).
21. Grey, “Tonto Basin,” in Tales of Lonely Trails, 169–245.
22. Quoted in Ashworth, Arizona Triptych, 206.
23. Wilhelm, Journal, 1920—Catalina and Arizona, September 27, 1920 (PF).
24. Ibid., October 21, 1920.
25. Ibid., October 22, 1920.
26. Ibid., October 27, 1920.
27. Kant, Zane Grey’s Arizona, 36.
28. Brett, “Zane Grey,” 27–28.
29. Zane Grey, Diary, 1923–39, November 17, 1923, 51 (MIC 172, OHS).
30. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, February 6, 1920 (mss. 1262, OHS).
31. Zane Grey, “Long Key, Florida—1920,” in Zane Grey Review 12 (December, 1996), 4–5. The manuscript of these pages is held by the OHS.
32. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, October 26, 1920 (BY-G2).
33. Grey, Journal, 1917–22, February 3, 1921 (JW).
34. Ibid., March 23, 1921. In Grey’s code, “I went there to meet Louise Anderson” appears as “21422″ 26724Q24 26 7424″ 183 204 16110482022.”
35. Zanesville Signal, March 28, 1921, 1.
36. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, March 21, [1921] (GH).
37. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, March 29, [1921] (GH).
38. Grey, Journal, 1917–22, March 23, 1921 (JW).
39. Death Certificate, Nelly Dennis Anderson, January 12, 1928, Bureau of Records, Zanesville, Ohio.
40. Grey, “The Living Past,” 6–7.
41. Grey, Journal, 1917–22, November 15, 1920 (JW). Along with this notation, Grey wrote, “I cannot forget. I felt too bitterly. Thirty years is as yesterday.”
42. Interview with Loren Grey, January 9, 2003.
43. Zanesville Signal, April 4, 1921, 7.
44. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, October 22, 1921 (BY-G).
45. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, February 23, 1922 (Bmms).
46. Back on July 22, 1918, Dolly had written to Zane, “I am sure that the physical relation has ceased to exist between you and me—that all of that kind of desire is dead. I cannot conceive of it any longer. But that is your fault.” Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, July 22, 1918 (BY-G). At this time, her assumption may have been premature.
47. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, April 28, 1922. Zane Grey Review 12 (June, 1997), 10.
48. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, July 5, 1922 (CK).
49. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, October 22, 1922 (GH).
50. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, May 6, 1923 (GH).
51. On April 2, 1923, Zane wrote this characterization of Dolly’s most recent letter: “There was a cry from your very soul. It seemed to me you were in an agony of longing. Driven! My dearest wife, I do not see why your heart should break. Is it so bad as that? Why are you so desperate?” (BY-G2).
52. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, January 13, 1923 (JW).
53. Lillian Wilhelm Robertson, Letter to Claire Wilhelm Carlin, March 30, 1921 (PF).
54. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, June 9, 1922 (CK).
55. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, October 30, [1921] (GH).
56. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, August 14, 1923 (BY-G).
57. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, February 3, 1922 (JW).
58. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, June 13, 1922 (BY-G2).
59. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, December 31, 1921 (BY-G2).
60. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, October 22, 1922 (BY-G2).
61. Patrick, “Getting Into Six Figures,” 424.
62. Zane Grey, Diary, 1923–39, January 20, 1923, 3 (MIC 172, OHS).
63. Ibid., January 31, 1923, 15.
64. Ibid., February 16, 1923, 23.
65. Grey, Journal 1912–15, March, 1915 (GH).
66. Lina Grey, Letter to Zane Grey, June 22, [1922] (BY-G2).
67. New York Times, August 27, 1922, 17.
68. Zane Grey, handwritten draft in letter mailed to Lina Grey, July 7, 1922 (LG).
69. Boston Transcript, January 17, 1923, 8.
70. Daily Eagle, January 6, 1923, 3.
71. Bookman 37 (April, 1923), 225.
72. New York Tribune, January 21, 1912, 19.
73. “New York’s Awe at Best Seller,” Literary Digest 76 (March 10, 1923), 30– 31.
74. Grey, “My Answer,” 4–5.
75. Zane Grey, Letter to Lina Grey, March 11, [1921] (GH).
76. Zane Grey, Diary, 1923–39, February 16, 1923, 25 (MIC 172, OHS).
77. Kennedy, Samuel Hopkins Adams, 130–31.
78. Zane Grey, Diary, 1923–39, February 16, 1923, 25–26 (MIC 172, OHS).
79. Zane Grey, Notebook on Income Sources (GH).
80. In a prefatory announcement to one of his serializations, Grey wrote, “I would rather publish my stories in the Ladies’ Home Journal than in any other magazine. It reaches the heart of American homes and is elevating and instructive in its influence. More over I have found that the Journal’s readers have an unusually keen interest in the Great West and the men and women of the open, the natural and primitive people of whom I write.”
81. Grey, “Swordfish, the Royal Purple Game of the Sea,” 256.
82. Grey, “Xiphias Gladius, 418 Pounds,” in Tales of Swordfish and Tuna, 124.
83. Zane and Dolly were not only as profligate in their spending as Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald but were also given to periodic vows of reform that were never kept. “You would not believe, but I have already taken in $100,000 this year,” Zane wrote to Dolly in August of 1922. “It seems unbelievable, especially considering the way it slips away. … I have on hand $3,000. I guess we won’t starve.
But, darling, you must try to save some money.” This request did not deter Dolly from signing a $10,000 commitment several days later to have an additional floor and roof built on their Altadena residence.
84. Wilhelm, Journal, 1920—Catalina and Arizona, n.p. (PF); Overholt, Catalina Story, 26, 32.
85. R. C. Grey discussed the innovation and progress achieved by these boat in “Tuna Fishing Yesterday and Today,” 430. This essay was reprinted in Adventures of a Deep-Sea Angler.
86. In one of his fishing articles published in 1918, Grey remarked, “Captain Danielson’s boat had utterly spoiled me for fishing out of any other.” Grey, Tales of Fishes, 44.
87. Grey, “Xiphias Gladius, 418 Pounds,” in Tales of Swordfish and Tuna, 122.
88. Catalina Islander, June 22, 1920, 11.
89. Wilhelm, Journal, 1920—Catalina and Arizona, n.p. (PF).
90. Grey, “Xiphias Gladius,” 10. Reprinted as “Xiphias Gladius, 418 Pounds” in Tales of Swordfish and Tuna.
91. Catalina Islander, May 25, 1920, 6.
92. Ibid., March 9, 1920, 6. R. C. Grey also mentions the reliance of Zane and himself upon this boat during the 1920 season in Adventures of a Deep-Sea Angler, 61.
93. Grey published this account of Boerstler’s hiring: “I made a deal with Captain Sid Boerstler, comparatively a newcomer to the colony. He was an expert engineer, young, strong, willing, but had not any knowledge of swordfishing. This R. C. and I undertook to teach him. I hope it is not unbecoming to my narrative to mention here that in 1920 and 1921 Captain Sid caught the most swordfish.” Grey, “Xiphias Gladius, 418 Pounds,” in Tales of Swordfish and Tuna, 122.
94. Catalina Islander, July 5, 1921, 2.
95. Macrate, History of the Tuna Club, 127. Also Catalina Islander, December 3, 1918, 1.
96. Contracts for Stewart and Fellows (Archives, Los Angeles Maritime Museum).
97. Catalina Islander, March 22, 1921, 1, 2, 8. Also February 8, 1921, 6.
98. Romer C. Grey, “Tuna Fishing Yesterday and Today,” 430–31. Zane encouraged another article by an unnamed author, “Noted Author Builds New Fishing Cruiser,” Pacific Motor Boat, April, 1921, 25–27. This article provides blueprint diagrams and a full accounting of the Gladiator’s appointments.
Zane Grey Page 43