If you possess a western bias that has kept you from reading Zane Grey, then this is the book for you!

As per our usual, we’ve swapped out some hyphened words for their modern equivalents: to-day is now today, camp-fire has become campfire, and so on.

Additionally, we’ve added over 40 footnotes, most of which are explanations of certain horse-riding terms, or definitions of archaic or literary words that Grey conservatively peppers throughout the text.

As a preface of sorts, we have included Grey’s essay that he contributed to the 1921 book My Maiden Effort, wherein Grey tells of his first two literary efforts: the first, a short story he wrote as a “young ruffian”; the second, his first novel that he ultimately self-published when no other publisher would. We include it because it gave us more respect for Grey—in it, you see all of the grit and dogged determination in micro that makes the macro of Riders of the Purple Sage so great.

Check it out here: Writers on Writing: Zane Grey

And to read our full thoughts on the novel, check out: I thought of Zane Grey as: Louis L’Amour, but wordier.

“The greatest western ever written.” —Frank Gruber

“Grey’s place? Numero uno.” —Will Henry

“Zane Grey epitomized the mythical West that should have been . . . the standout among them is Riders of the Purple Sage.” —True West

“Poignant in its emotional qualities.” —The New York Times

“Riders of the Purple Sage conveys a sense of spaciousness and light and color . . . The story is one of fierce passions; there is much gunplay and some killing.” —Harper’s

“Zane Grey is a capital writer of plot stories of the kind which rough-and-ready critics say are ‘full of good, red blood.’” —The Outlook

” . . . night riders and chill mystery, throbbing romance, wild horses, and hot death are the elements Zane Grey has used in compounding this stirring tale.” —McClure’s Magazine

“A powerful work, exceedingly well written.” —Brooklyn Eagle

“Zane Grey scores again.” —New York World

“Has the rush and sense of adventure.” —The Independent

“Episodes of bravery, scoundrelism, chivalry, horsemanship, and ready shooting . . . ” —The World (New York)

“Well-handed melodramatic story of hairbreadth escapes.” —Booklist

“He possesses a powerful imagination, of the myth-making type which glorifies and enlarges all that it touches, and in his best work, Riders of the Purple Sage, he uses imagination to the utmost.” —The Saturday Review of Literature

Riders of the Purple Sage