Riders of the Purple Sage

Last updated
Riders of the Purple Sage
ZG Riders of the Purple Sage Cover.jpg
Grosset & Dunlap first edition cover
Author Zane Grey
Illustrator Douglas Duer
Cover artist Wendell Galloway
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Genre Western
Publisher Harper & Brothers, Grosset & Dunlap
Publication date
1912
Media typePaper, 8vo
Pages356
Preceded byThe Heritage of the West 
Followed by The Rainbow Trail  

Riders of the Purple Sage is a Western novel by Zane Grey, first published by Harper & Brothers in 1912. Considered by scholars [1] to have played a significant role in shaping the formula of the popular Western genre, the novel has been called "the most popular western novel of all time". [2]

Contents

Plot

Riders of the Purple Sage is a story about three main characters, Bern Venters, Jane Withersteen, and Jim Lassiter, who in various ways struggle with persecution from the local Mormon community led by Bishop Dyer and Elder Tull in the fictional town of Cottonwoods, Utah.

Jane Withersteen, a born-and-raised Mormon, provokes Elder Tull because she is attractive, wealthy, and befriends "Gentiles" (non-Mormons), namely, a little girl named Fay Larkin, a man she has hired named Bern Venters, and another hired man named Jim Lassiter. Elder Tull, a polygamist [3] with two wives already, wishes to have Jane for a third wife, along with her estate.

The story involves cattle-rustling, horse-theft, kidnapping and gunfights.

Setting

The setting is Southern Utah canyon country, 1871. The influx of Mormon settlers from 1847 to 1857 serves as a backdrop for the plot. The Mormons had been living in Kirtland, Ohio in the 1830s, but ventured west to escape local religious persecution.

Point of view

The story is told by an omniscient narrator reporting the characters' actions and thoughts, for example: "On this night the same old loneliness beset Venters..." [4]

Characters

Jane Withersteen

Wealthy owner and operator of the sizable Withersteen ranch founded by her father. Miss Withersteen sympathizes with both Mormons (her own people) and Gentiles, which gets her into trouble with the local bishop and elder.

Bern Venters

Venters is a non-Mormon employed by Miss Withersteen. As the story opens he is in a very poor state, being persecuted by the local Mormons. He is very able with firearms and horses, and is determined to survive and prosper.

Jim Lassiter

Lassiter is a gunfighter on a mysterious mission which brings him to Cottonwoods and Miss Withersteen. He is a non-Mormon and has no creed except his own pride.

Bess/Elizabeth Erne

Bess, known as the Masked Rider, has been raised by the outlaw Oldring and his band of rustlers; she has very little memory of her mother.

Elder Tull

Tull practices "plural marriage" and desires to marry Jane Withersteen. He also tries to drive Bern Venters and Lassiter out of town and out of the region.

Sequel

The Rainbow Trail , a sequel to Riders of the Purple Sage that reveals the fate of Jane and Lassiter and their adopted daughter, was published in 1915. Both novels are notable for their protagonists' strong opposition to Mormon polygamy, but in Rainbow Trail this theme is treated more explicitly. Both plots revolve around the victimization of women in the Mormon culture: Riders of the Purple Sage centers on the struggle of a Mormon woman who sacrifices her wealth and social status to avoid becoming a junior wife of the head of the local church, while Rainbow Trail contrasts the fanatical older Mormons with the rising generation of Mormon women who will not tolerate polygamy and Mormon men who do not seek it.

Adaptations

Films

Riders of the Purple Sage has been adapted to film five times. [5]

Other media

During World War II the novel was rejected for publication as an Armed Services Editions paperback provided to US servicemen due to perceived bias against Mormonism. [6]

In 1952, Dell released a comic book version of the novel (Dell # 372). [7]

Riders of the Purple Sage was adapted into an opera by composer Craig Bohmler and librettist Steven Mark Kohn. It had its world premiere in February and March 2017 by the Arizona Opera in Tucson and Phoenix. [8] The opera was broadcast nationwide on November 25, 2017, on the WFMT Radio Network's American Opera Series, [9] [10] [11] [12] and broadcast internationally in 2018 via distribution to the European Broadcasting Union. [13] [14] [15]

Riders of the Purple Sage has inspired a number of homages, including:

Bobbi Anderson, a novelist who is the main protagonist of Stephen King's 1987 novel The Tommyknockers , mentions Riders of the Purple Sage as one of her favorite novels, indicating that her copy of it had been read "nearly to tatters".

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zane Grey</span> American novelist (1872–1939)

Pearl Zane Grey was an American author and dentist. He is known for his popular adventure novels and stories associated with the Western genre in literature and the arts; he idealized the American frontier. Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) was his best-selling book.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western fiction</span> Literary genre

Western fiction is a genre of literature set in the American Old West frontier and typically set from the late eighteenth to the late nineteenth century. Well-known writers of Western fiction include Zane Grey from the early 20th century and Louis L'Amour from the mid-20th century. The genre peaked around the early 1960s, largely due to the popularity of televised Westerns such as Bonanza. Readership began to drop off in the mid- to late 1970s and reached a new low in the 2000s. Most bookstores, outside a few west American states, only carry a small number of Western fiction books.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank McGrath (actor)</span> American actor and stunt performer (1903–1967)

Benjamin Franklin "Frank" McGrath was an American television and film actor and stunt performer who played the comical, optimistic cook with the white beard, Charlie B. Wooster, on the western series Wagon Train for five seasons on NBC and then three seasons on ABC. McGrath appeared in all 272 episodes in the eight seasons of the series, which had ended its run only two years before his death. McGrath's Wooster character hence provided the meals and companionship for both fictional trail masters, Ward Bond as Seth Adams and John McIntire as Christopher "Chris" Hale.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Arizona Opera</span> Opera company

Arizona Opera is an opera company which operates in both Phoenix and Tucson, Arizona.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Purple sage</span> Index of plants with the same common name

Purple sage has various uses, mostly referring to plants or to Zane Grey's novel Riders of the Purple Sage, set in Utah. There is disagreement about what plant Grey had in mind.

Buck Page was an American guitarist and multi-instrumentalist who founded the western band Riders of the Purple Sage, one of three unrelated bands by that name.

Riders of the Purple Sage was a name used by three separate western bands in the United States. These bands also inspired the naming of a fourth band playing in a more psychedelic country style, the New Riders of the Purple Sage. The name originally came from the title of Zane Grey's very popular 1912 novel Riders of the Purple Sage.

<i>The Rainbow Trail</i> Western novel by Zane Grey, 1915

The Rainbow Trail, also known as The Desert Crucible, is Western author Zane Grey's sequel to Riders of the Purple Sage. Originally published under the title The Rainbow Trail in 1915, it was re-edited and re-released in recent years as The Desert Crucible with the original manuscript that Grey submitted to publishers.

Riders of the Purple Sage may refer to:

<i>Riders of the Purple Sage</i> (1918 film) 1918 film

Riders of the Purple Sage is a 1918 American silent Western film directed by Frank Lloyd and starring William Farnum, Mary Mersch, and William Scott. The film is about a former Texas Ranger who goes after a group of Mormons who have abducted his married sister. This Frank Lloyd silent film was the first of five film adaptations of Zane Grey's 1912 novel.

<i>Riders of the Purple Sage</i> (1925 film) 1925 film

Riders of the Purple Sage is a 1925 American silent Western film directed by Lynn Reynolds and starring Tom Mix, Mabel Ballin, and Warner Oland. Based on the 1912 novel Riders of the Purple Sage by Zane Grey, the film is about a former Texas Ranger who pursues a corrupt lawyer who abducted his married sister and niece. His search leads him to a remote Arizona ranch and the love of a good woman.

Lassiter is an English family name. It is a habitational name from the city of Leicester. Notable people with the surname include:

<i>Riders of the Purple Sage</i> (1931 film) 1931 film by Hamilton MacFadden

Riders of the Purple Sage is a 1931 American pre-Code Western film based upon the 1912 novel by Zane Grey, directed by Hamilton MacFadden, photographed by George Schneiderman, and starring George O'Brien and Marguerite Churchill. The picture was released by the Fox Film Corporation with a running time of 58 minutes and remains the third of five screen versions. It was the first sound version. The movie was followed later the same year by a similar adaptation of the novel's sequel, The Rainbow Trail, also starring O'Brien.

<i>Riders of the Purple Sage</i> (1996 film) 1996 TV film

Riders of the Purple Sage is a 1996 American Western television film based on the 1912 novel by Zane Grey, directed by Charles Haid, adapted by Gil Dennis, and starring Ed Harris as Lassiter and Amy Madigan as Jane Withersteen. The film aired on TNT on January 21, 1996.

Riders of the Purple Sage is a 1941 American Western film based on the 1912 novel by Zane Grey, directed by James Tinling, and starring George Montgomery as Lassiter and Mary Howard as Jane Withersteen. The picture is the fourth of five screen adaptations of Grey's novel produced across an eight-decade span.

<i>The Rainbow Trail</i> (1932 film) 1932 Pre-Code Western film

The Rainbow Trail is a 1932 Pre-Code Western film directed by David Howard and starring George O'Brien. The picture is an adaptation of Zane Grey's novel of the same name and a sequel to the 1931 film Riders of the Purple Sage, which also stars O'Brien.

<i>The Rainbow Trail</i> (1918 film) 1918 American silent Western film

The Rainbow Trail is a lost 1918 American silent Western film directed by Frank Lloyd.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Western romance literature</span>

Western romance literature denotes a genre subset of romance literature, sometimes referred to as cowboy romance. Works within this category typically adhere to the characteristics of romance but take place in a western setting, frequently the American frontier. Though often historical, the genre is not restricted to romantic works set in the period of American settlement but extends to contemporary romantic works that centre around cowboys or other tropes of the Western genre.

Craig Bohmler is an American composer who specializes in opera and musical theater. His musicals include Gunmetal Blues (1991), which has had well over 100 professional productions; Enter the Guardsman (1997), which won the international Musical of the Year award and received an Olivier Award nomination; and Mountain Days (2000), celebrating the life of John Muir. His operas include Riders of the Purple Sage (2017), an adaptation of Zane Grey's book of the same title which was broadcast nationwide in November 2017 and internationally in 2018.

Myeerah also known as "Princess Myeerah", "White Crane", and "Walk-in-the-Water"c. 1758 – February 1816) was a Native American woman, belonging to the Wyandot people, notable for bringing "peace and goodwill" between white settlers and Native people. She was the daughter of Tarhe, the chief of the Porcupine clan of the Wyandot tribe along Lake Erie.

References

Citations
  1. Handley, William R. Introduction. Zane Grey. Riders of the Purple Sage. New York: Modern Library, 2002; p. xi. ISBN   978-08129-66121.
  2. Grey, Zane (2004). Fred Stenson (ed.). Riders of the Purple Sage . New York: Barnes & Noble. p. ix. ISBN   978-0760757550.
  3. Mormons officially ended the practice of polygamy in 1890.
  4. Grey, Zane. Riders of the Purple Sage. New York: Modern Library, 2002; chapter 4. ISBN   978-08129-66121.
  5. Hulse, Ed (2007). Filming the West of Zane Grey . Lone Pine: Museum of Lone Pine Film History. pp. vii–x. ISBN   978-1880756096.
  6. "Armed Service Editions".
  7. "The Writings of Zane Grey: Comic Books". Zane Grey West Society. Retrieved November 3, 2012.
  8. Lengel, Kerry (20 February 2017). "'Riders of the Purple Sage' is Arizona Opera's first-ever world premiere". azcentral.com. Retrieved 22 May 2019.
  9. "International Broadcast Takes Arizona Opera's Riders of the Purple Sage Around the World". Arizona Opera. September 13, 2017.
  10. "International broadcast takes Arizona Opera's Riders of the Purple Sage around the world". Arizona PBS . September 13, 2017.
  11. "American Opera Series 2017 Presented by The WFMT Radio Network". WFMT Radio Network. 2017.
  12. "AZ Opera's Riders of the Purple Sage Set for Nationwide Broadcast This Fall". Broadway World. November 25, 2017.
  13. Burch, Cathalena E. "AZ Opera's 'Riders' getting national audience". Arizona Daily Star . September 13, 2017.
  14. "Riders of the Purple Sage". Australian Broadcasting Corporation . July 22, 2018.
  15. "Program: 3. 11. 2018". Vlata . Retrieved August 14, 2019.
Bibliography