"Riders of the Purple Sage" presents the conflict between a Mormon community and non-Mormon people, Gentiles. Jane Withersteen is a born-and-raised Mormon. She however sympathizes both Mormons and Gentiles which gets her often into trouble. The gunfighter Jim Lassiter arrives in the town just in time. There is a lurking danger in Jane’s life. Elder Tull, a local leader of the Mormon community and a polygamist, wants to have Jane as a third wife. Will Lassiter succeed to save Jane from the unwanted marriage or the Mormon polygamy will prevail?
"Riders of the Purple Sage" is Zane Grey’s most popular Western novel which is considered to have played a significant role in the shaping of the genre Western. The novel was first published in 1912.
Pearl Zane Grey was an American author born in 1872. He is best known with his adventure novels which idealize the American frontier and which largely created a new genre called western. The novel "Riders of the Purple Sage", published in 1912, earned Grey wide popularity. The book turned to the author’s all-time-best seller and also one of the most successful Western novels. Zane Grey wrote more than 80 books which later inspired many Western writers who followed in Zane Grey’s footsteps.