Rangle River : Stories of the West

Rangle River, the title story from this collection is set in Australia and is a good 'cowboy' story, and as with most of Zane Grey's shorter works he intensifies his characterizations. It's a good story, and probably the outline for his novel, The Great Trek. In a slightly differing form, Amber's Mirage, the other short novel was used as a prologue or the background for two other Zane Grey novels, but it stands well alone. There are two first hand accounts of Zane Grey's travels in this collection as well--Don: the story of a dog; and Nonnezoshe, a story detailing Zane Grey's trip to the Rainbow Bridge and through Monument Valley, a trip which inspired his early works--Riders of the Purple Sage and The Desert Crucible. You will meet the Mormons and the Indians who taught Zane Grey about the west, and meet fictional characters you will want to read about again, and again. Whether fiction or non-fiction Zane Grey can not be beat when it comes to description of times, places, or people. I highly recommend this book