Riders of the Purple Sage

Riders of the Purple Sage tells the story of Jane Withersteen and her battle to overcome her persecution by members of her Polygamous Mormon church, a leader of which, Elder Tull, wants to marry her. Withersteen is supported by a number of Gentile friends, including Bern Venters and Lassiter, the famous gunman and killer of Mormons. Throughout most of the novel she struggles with her "blindness" in seeing the evil nature of her church and its leaders, trying to keep both Venters and Lassiter from killing her adversaries, who are slowly ruining her. Through the adoption of a child, Fay, she abandons her false beliefs and discovers her true love. A second plot strand tells of Venters and his escape to the wilderness with a girl whom he has accidentally shot, cares for, and falls in love with. In the end of the novel Venters and Bess, "the rustler's girl," escape to the East, while Lassiter, Fay, and Jane, pursued by both Mormons and rustlers, escape into a paradise-like valley by toppling a giant balancing rock, forever closing off the only way in or out.

Riders of the Purple Sage is Zane Grey's best-known novel. Most critics agree that it played a significant role in shaping the formula of the popular Western genre.