Riders of the Purple Sage

A gentile sage rider is about to be whipped by the Mormons to coerce the rich and beautiful Jane Withersteen to marry against her will. In desperation, Jane whispers a prayer, "Whence cometh my help!" Just then, an unlikely hero, the infamous gunfighter Lassiter, routs the persecutors and is drawn into this conflict on the Utah-Arizona border. The mysterious loner hires on at Jane's ranch. Through battles with gun-slinging cattle rustlers, cutthroats, and the calculating Mormons, Lassiter unveils his tale of an endless search for a woman who was abducted long ago. Judged by critics to be Zane Grey's best novel, Riders of the Purple Sage changed the Western genre when it was first published in 1912. This novel shows the gritty as well as the gallant in a more candid portrayal of the West than any that had come before it.