Other editions of book The Desert of Wheat

Zane Grey, original name Pearl Grey, (born Jan. 31, 1872, Zanesville, Ohio, U.S.—died Oct. 23, 1939, Altadena, Calif.), prolific writer whose romantic novels of the American West largely created a new literary genre, the western.Trained as a dentist, Grey practiced in New York City from 1898 to 1904, when he published privately a novel of pioneer life, Betty Zane, based on an ancestor’s journal. Deciding to abandon dentistry for full-time writing, he published in 1905 The Spirit of the Border—also based on Zane’s notes—which became a best-seller. Grey subsequently wrote more than 80 books, a number of which were published posthumously; more than 50 were in print in the last quarter of the 20th century. The novel Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) was the most popular; others included The Lone Star Ranger (1915), The U.P. Trail (1918), Call of the Canyon (1924), and Code of the West (1934). Prominent among his nonfiction works is Tales of Fishing (1925). (britannica.com)The more books Grey sold, the more the established critics, such as Heywood Broun and Burton Rascoe, attacked him. They claimed his depictions of the West were too fanciful, too violent, and not faithful to the moral realities of the frontier. They thought his characters unrealistic and much larger-than-life. Broun stated that "the substance of any two Zane Grey books could be written upon the back of a postage stamp."T. K. Whipple praised a typical Grey novel as a modern version of the ancient Beowulf saga, a battle of passions with one another and with the will, a struggle of love and hate, or remorse and revenge, of blood, lust, honor, friendship, anger, grief—all of a grand scale and all incalculable and mysterious." But he also criticized Grey's writing, "His style, for example, has the stiffness which comes from an imperfect mastery of the medium. It lacks fluency and facility.Grey based his work in his own varied first-hand experience, supported by careful note-taking, and considerable research. Despite his great popular success and fortune, Grey read the reviews and sometimes became paralyzed by negative emotions after critical ones. (wikipedia.org)

Zane Grey, original name Pearl Grey, (born Jan. 31, 1872, Zanesville, Ohio, U.S.—died Oct. 23, 1939, Altadena, Calif.), prolific writer whose romantic novels of the American West largely created a new literary genre, the western.Trained as a dentist, Grey practiced in New York City from 1898 to 1904, when he published privately a novel of pioneer life, Betty Zane, based on an ancestor’s journal. Deciding to abandon dentistry for full-time writing, he published in 1905 The Spirit of the Border—also based on Zane’s notes—which became a best-seller. Grey subsequently wrote more than 80 books, a number of which were published posthumously; more than 50 were in print in the last quarter of the 20th century. The novel Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) was the most popular; others included The Lone Star Ranger (1915), The U.P. Trail (1918), Call of the Canyon (1924), and Code of the West (1934). Prominent among his nonfiction works is Tales of Fishing (1925). (britannica.com)The more books Grey sold, the more the established critics, such as Heywood Broun and Burton Rascoe, attacked him. They claimed his depictions of the West were too fanciful, too violent, and not faithful to the moral realities of the frontier. They thought his characters unrealistic and much larger-than-life. Broun stated that "the substance of any two Zane Grey books could be written upon the back of a postage stamp."T. K. Whipple praised a typical Grey novel as a modern version of the ancient Beowulf saga, a battle of passions with one another and with the will, a struggle of love and hate, or remorse and revenge, of blood, lust, honor, friendship, anger, grief—all of a grand scale and all incalculable and mysterious." But he also criticized Grey's writing, "His style, for example, has the stiffness which comes from an imperfect mastery of the medium. It lacks fluency and facility.Grey based his work in his own varied first-hand experience, supported by careful note-taking, and considerable research. Despite his great popular success and fortune, Grey read the reviews and sometimes became paralyzed by negative emotions after critical ones. (wikipedia.org)

Famed Western writer Zane Grey veers from his typical narrative trajectory and treads into topical waters in The Desert of Wheat. Honorable wheat farmer Kurt Dorn is torn over whether he should join in the fight against Germany or remain in the U.S. to protect his family and crops. Will home or the battlefield hold sway? Read The Desert of Wheat to find out.

Famed Western writer Zane Grey veers from his typical narrative trajectory and treads into topical waters in The Desert of Wheat. Honorable wheat farmer Kurt Dorn is torn over whether he should join in the fight against Germany or remain in the U.S. to protect his family and crops. Will home or the battlefield hold sway? Read The Desert of Wheat to find out.

The Desert of Wheat is a thrilling and romantic tale of sabotage in the wheat fields of the Pacific Northwest during World War I. Young farmer Kurt Dorn is torn between going to France to fight the Germans or staying in America to be with the woman he loves and to protect his wheat crop against saboteurs who question his loyalties. He struggles to come to terms with his deepest beliefs and his place in the world. In this passionate tale, Zane Grey, one of America's most popular and enduring authors, captures the anxieties of a young country threatened by a foreign war and poised on the brink of a century of change.

Pearl Zane Grey (1872-1939) was an American author of popular adventure novels presenting an idealized image of the American frontier, best known for his 1912 novel, Riders of the Purple Sage. The Desert of Wheat tells the story of the son of a German Farmer and his experiences in his fight for his land, wheat, family, and country. The book takes place in the Columbia basin in northwestern United States and British Columbia, Canada, during WWI.

Late in June the vast northwestern desert of wheat began to take on a tinge of gold, lending an austere beauty to that endless, rolling, smooth world of treeless hills, where miles of fallow ground and miles of waving grain sloped up to the far-separated homes of the heroic men who had conquered over sage and sand. These simple homes of farmers seemed lost on an immensity of soft gray and golden billows of land, insignificant dots here and there on distant hills, so far apart that nature only seemed accountable for those broad squares of alternate gold and brown, extending on and on to the waving horizon-line. A lonely, hard, heroic country, where flowers and fruit were not, nor birds and brooks, nor green pastures. Whirling strings of dust looped up over fallow ground, the short, dry wheat lay back from the wind, the haze in the distance was drab and smoky, heavy with substance.

Lacking gun fights and horses that appear in other Zane Grey novels, this story is nonetheless just as captivating. Young wheat farmer Kurt Dorn is at odds with his father over his plan to leave the farm and enlist in the army to fight in World War One. Wheat crops are needed to feed the troops and the nation. When unscrupulous union organizers with foreign ties appear on the scene, a battle just as dramatic forces Kurt to take action that leads to life-changing decisions. A splendid step away from the Wild West for Zane Grey, who paints just as vivid a picture in this story as in his other novels and creates a captivating story.