Note from the Blogger

These mini-reviews are intended to be short recommendations, not full blown literary reviews. Please feel free to add your own comments. -- Tim Drake

Thursday, November 21, 2019

Ohio River Trilogy: Betty Zane (1903) By Zane Grey


Recently while browsing books I came across The Ohio River Trilogy by Zane Grey.  It occurred to me then that I had never read a Zane Grey book even though he’s arguably one of the most successful and prolific American authors of all time.  He’s written over 90 books and short stories, which according to his biographer Frank Gruber in 1969, had sold over 40 million copies and had been made into 112 films.  Grey’s book Riders of the Purple Sage (published in 1912) is considered by most as the definitive classic of the western genre.

The trilogy is a telling of early Ohio River Valley pioneer settlement.  As a youth Grey had heard this history as part of his family’s folklore.  His maternal grandfather was Ebenezer Zane a member of the Virginia militia, land speculator, road builder and pioneer.  Ebenezer founded Fort Henry on the Ohio River at what is present-day Wheeling, West Virginia.  The outpost is a critical part of colonial history, and when founded in 1769 marked what was then the outer limits of the American “west.” Zanesville, Ohio, is one of several other present-day towns & cities in the area also platted and founded by Ebenezer.

Fort Henry


The opening book in the Trilogy is titled Betty Zane (the author’s Great-Aunt).  The title character is Ebenezer’s sister.  She came to live with “Eb” and his family at Fort Henry.  In the story she will play a key role in repelling the second siege of Fort Henry (in 1782) when British soldiers and allied Indian tribes attempted to capture the fort.

As a fictionalized history, the book Betty Zane works at making understandable what is a confusing part of colonial history (i.e. – multiple shifting alliances).  Like James Fenimore Cooper, of whom he was an avid fan, Zane Gray makes the attempt to balance the “murdering savages” portrayal of the Indians that fit neatly with colonial politics, with a kinder “noble savage” imagery associated with Cooper. The biggest surprise (to me) in the book is that it is also an unmistakable romance novel.

Recommendation:  Yes, and I will read the remaining two books in the trilogy:  The Spirit of the Border; and The Last Trail.

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