ZANE GREY'S RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE: The Real Story Behind the Wild West's Greatest Tale

His mother was against it, but he grew up to be a cowboy anyway. Zane Grey was a corn-fed Midwesterner who ended up an unhappy dentist in New York City. After a journey to Arizona and Utah in 1907, he decided he would rather wear chaps and a Stetson than return to a mundane life pulling teeth in Manhattan and thus began his career as a western writer. Illus.