Cabin Gulch : A Western Story

What makes this book so important is this fact: With this unexpurgated book, finally, at last, the "real" Zane Grey can be read and enjoyed; and I believe Jon Tuska, the editor, when he says the words are all Zane Grey and not his. In the foreword, Jon Tuska writes, "The changes and alterations in "Riders of the Purple Sage" based on the original holographic manuscript in the collection of the Ohio State Historical Society, are even more drastic (meaning those made to "The Rainbow Trail) and alter the entire perspective of the story." After he had finished copy-editing the original version and had sent a copy for Loren Grey to examine Tuska enclosed this: "It answers a number of questions that the characters and situations posed after publication of the bowdlerized version by Harper & Bros. I followed along with the original text as I was copy-editing, and I was astonished at just how much Ripley Hitchcock rewrote what your father had written. These changes haven't always to do with your father's story, but with matters of authorial voice, and often….changes in tone, diction, and style tend to be somewhat jarring. In every case I prefer the way Zane Grey put it." As Tuska so aptly put it, Zane Grey was not the only American author "to stand by and watch his work altered, rewritten, changed by the hands of others". It is clear to me that Ripley Hitchcock did not like Zane Grey. He did not like this novel and rejected it out of hand, informing Zane Grey that he had "no noticeable ability for writing narrative fiction", the same remark he had made about "The Heritage of the Desert" (Harper, 1910) that Grey finally rewrote to Hitchcock's satisfaction. When it came to "Riders of the Purple Sage" there was no way Hitchcock could see the novel might be saved because of the theme of Mormon polygamy. Zane Grey had received the same response from Bob Davis at The Frank A. Munsey Company that this was an even better novel than "The Heritage of the Desert" but could not be published as a serial in his magazine because of the thousands of Mormon subscribers. At Street & Smith Zane Grey got the same greeting. Finally out of desperation he went to Fredrick Duneka vice-president of Harper & Bros who had once been Mark Twain's editor and discovered that Duneka had already read the book, as had his wife, and they both loved it. Harper's would publish it, but NOT as Zane Grey had written it. "Ripley Hitchcock as senior editor was charged with executing the necessary editorial changes that would make the novel more acceptable generally to readers and book buyers". It was this version which had appeared in Field & Stream in nineteen monthly installments (1/12—7/13). This restored edition more fully explains the real romantic relationship which Jane had with Bern, and also explains why she was so magnanimous in giving her thoroughbred racers to Bern and Bess so they could out run Tull's posse and escape. The original only leaves you wondering about these things. This restored edition will probably not replace the "original" as it has been in existence for over one hundred years and millions of copies are readily available for the reading public to enjoy. Yet it is nice to have this one to compare to the other and understand just what an author had to endure to have his work published—work he knew in his heart was better than what was printed on the page.