The novel that set the pattern for the modern Western, Riders of the Purple Sage was first published in 1912, immediately selling over a million copies. In the remote border country of southern Utah, a man is about to be whipped by the Mormons in order to pressure Jane Withersteen into marrying against her will. The punishment is halted by the arrival of the hero, Lassiter, a gunman in black leather, who routs the persecutors and then gradually recounts his own history of an endless search for a woman abducted long ago by the Mormons. Secrecy, seduction, captivity, and escape: out of these elements Zane Grey fashioned his magnificent classic of the American West.

The first of Zane Grey's many bestsellers, this stirring tale of adventure and romance established the prototype for western novels. A proud young heroine stands alone against the villains who rustle and stampede her cattle — until a stranger rides into the territory. Classic of American frontier fiction, teeming with color, authenticity, thrills.

The canyons and sage plains of Utah have a dangerous beauty. Skilled riders must go out every day and night to protect the herds and the homesteads from cattle rustlers. Stories of a masked man and a lone gunman looking for vengeance have spread across Utah. There has long been a feud between Gentiles and Mormons. A feud that Jane Withersteen, daughter of the man who founded the Mormon settlement of Cottonwood, chooses to ignore. When Mormon Elder Tull discovers that the woman he means to make one of his wives has offered hospitality to an outsider he vows vengeance but he underestimates her courage and the determination of the riders of the plains.