Zane Grey Books In Order

Publication Order of Ohio River Trilogy Books

Betty Zane	1903
The Spirit of the Border	1906
The Last Trail	1909

Publication Order of Ken Ward Books

The Young Forester	1910
The Young Pitcher	1911
The Young Lion Hunter	1911
Ken Ward in the Jungle	1912

Publication Order of Riders of the Purple Sage Books

Riders of the Purple Sage	1912
The Rainbow Trail	1915

Publication Order of The Light of Western Stars Books

The Light of Western Stars	1914
Majesty’s Rancho	1942

Publication Order of Wanderer of the Wasteland Books

Wanderer of the Wasteland	1923
Stairs of Sand	1943

Publication Order of Forlorn River Books

Forlorn River	1927
Nevada	1928

Publication Order of The Drift Fence Books

The Drift Fence	1933
The Hash Knife Outfit	1933

Publication Order of Knights of the Range Books

Knights of the Range	1939
Twin Sombreros	1940

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

The Short Stop	1909
The Heritage of the Desert	1910
Desert Gold	1913
The Lone Star Ranger	1915
The Border Legion	1916
Wildfire	1917
The U.P. Trail / The Roaring U.P. Trail	1918
The Desert of Wheat	1919
The Man of the Forest	1920
The Mysterious Rider	1921
To the Last Man	1921
The Day of the Beast	1922
The Call of the Canyon	1924
The Thundering Herd	1925
The Vanishing American	1925
Under the Tonto Rim	1926
Wild Horse Mesa	1928
Fighting Caravans	1929
The Shepherd of Guadaloupe	1930
Sunset Pass	1931
Arizona Ames	1932
Robbers’ Roost	1932
Code of the West	1934
Thunder Mountain	1935
The Trail Driver	1935
The Lost Wagon Train	1936
West of the Pecos	1937
Raiders of Spanish Peaks	1938
Western Union	1939
Thirty Thousand on the Hoof	1940
The Wilderness Trek	1944
Shadow on the Trail	1946
Valley of Wild Horses	1947
Rogue River Feud	1948
The Deer Stalker	1949
The Maverick Queen	1950
The Dude Ranger	1951
Captives of the Desert	1952
Wyoming	1953
Lost Pueblo	1954
Black Mesa	1955
Stranger from the Tonto	1956
The Fugitive Trail	1957
Arizona Clan	1958
Horse Heaven Hill	1959
Boulder Dam	1963
The Reef Girl	1977
George Washington, Frontiersman	1994
Rangers of the Lone Star	1997

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Don, the Story of a Lion Dog	1928
The Wolf Tracker	1930

Publication Order of Short Story Collections

The Redheaded Outfield and Other Baseball Stories	1920
Tappan’s Burro	1923
The Ranger and Other Stories	1960
Blue Feather and Other Stories	1961
The Camp Robber and Other Stories	1979

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

The Last of the Plainsmen	1908
Tales of Fishes	1919
Tales of Lonely Trails	1922
Roping Lions in the Grand Canyon	1924
Tales of Southern Rivers	1924
Tales of Fishing Virgin Seas	1925
Tales of the Angler’s Eldorado, New Zealand	1926
Tales of Swordfish and Tuna	1927
Tales of Fresh Water Fishing	1928
Tales of Tahitian Waters	1931
Book of Camps and Trails	1931
An American Angler in Australia	1937
Adventures in Fishing	1952
Tales from a Fisherman’s Log	1978

About Zane Grey

Zane Grey (1872 to 1939) was an American novelist whose adventure stories of the frontier did much to define the Western as a genre. Born Pearl Zane Grey in Zanesville, Ohio, he wrote more than 90 books, of which “Riders of the Purple Sage” (1912) was the best seller. His novels and stories were adapted into more than a hundred films.

Grey went to the University of Pennsylvania on a baseball scholarship, graduated in dentistry in 1896 and set up a practice in New York City, writing in the evenings. In 1905 he married Lina Roth, known as Dolly, who edited his manuscripts and handled his contracts with publishers and film studios. They settled at Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, and he gave up dentistry to write.

His first novel, “Betty Zane” (1903), was self-published after Harper turned it down. With “The Spirit of the Border” and “The Last Trail” it tells the story of his own ancestors on the Ohio frontier. Hunting trips to the Grand Canyon, arranged after he heard the hunter and guide Buffalo Jones lecture in 1907, gave him his Western material. “The Heritage of the Desert” (1910) was his first bestseller, and “Riders of the Purple Sage” followed two years later. Its sequel is “The Rainbow Trail”.

From 1917 to 1926 Grey was in the top ten of the bestseller list nine times. “The Vanishing American” caused controversy for its account of the treatment of the Navajo by government agents and missionaries. He moved to California in 1918 and from 1920 lived in Altadena. For a time he ran his own film company, which he sold to Jesse Lasky, and Paramount went on to film many of his books.

Fishing was his other great interest. He held a number of world records, fished regularly in New Zealand, Australia and Tahiti, and wrote eight books about the sport, among them “Tales of the Angler’s Eldorado, New Zealand” and “An American Angler in Australia”. He also wrote baseball stories and a series of boys’ books about Ken Ward.

Grey died of heart failure at Altadena on 23 October 1939. Harper held a stock of unpublished manuscripts and went on issuing a new title almost every year until 1963, ending with “Boulder Dam”. His work was later adapted for television in “Dick Powell’s Zane Grey Theatre”.

Photo: J. Willis Sayre Collection of Theatrical Photographs, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons (cropped).