The New York herald., 1922-01-08

long been a puzzle to many
= critics. His romances are
frankly tales of blood. EIe always fur
nishes his growing clientele with a
grand holocaust. Yet despite his san
culinary themes he has many readers
who hold the usual run of Western
thrillers in deep scorn. His hold on
them is not hard to understand for
he gives them good straight stories.
free from the shallow sentimentality
and lurid phraseology that sometimes
mar this kind of fiction.
In a preface to his latest story, Zane
Grey tries to let us into his secret.
He describes his methods. He holds
brief for romance. Romance" he
asserts, lis only another name for
idealism, and / contend that life with
out ideals is not worth living. Never
in the history of the world were ideals
needed so terribly as now. 1t was
Stevenson particularly who welded
bludgeon against the realists. People
live for the dream in their hearts.
And l have yet to know any one who
has not some secret dream, some hope,
however dim. some storied wall to
look at in the dusk, some painted win
dow leading to the soul"
Further on in the preface he says:'
My inspiration to write has always
come from nature Character and
action are subordinated to setting. In
all that / have done l have tried to
make people see how the world Is too
much with them Getting and spend
ing they lay waste their powers with
never a breath of the free and wonder
full life of the open!
Zane Grey then tells how he came
to write the story of feud. He heard
rumors of a terrible struggle in the
Pleasant Valley in the Tonic Basin OF
Arizona He decided to go there In
quest of material. To his surprise he
found that the natives were very
reticent about the episode, and it took
several successive visits to gain their
confidence In 1920 he says: with
out nv asking it several different ma
tiyes of the Tonto came to tell me
about the Pleasant Valley war. No
two of them agreed on anything con-
cernins it, except that only one of the
active participants survived the fight
ing. Whence comes my title To the
Last Man Thus I was swamped in
a mass of material out OF which
could only founder to my own con-
clusion. Some of the stories told me
are singularly tempting to noveiist.
But though I believe them myself,
cannot risk their improbability 10
those who have no idea of the wild
ness of wild men at wild time.
There really was terrible and bloody
feud perhaps the most deadly and
least known in all the annals OF the
West I saw the ground. the cabins,
the graves all so darkly suggestive
of what must have happened.
"I never learned the truth of the
cause of the Pleasant Valley war. or
if I did hear it had no means OF
recognizing it. All the given causes
were plausible and convincing.
Strange to state there is still secrecy
and reticence all over the Tonto Basin
as TO the facts of this feud. Many de-
scendants of those killed are living
there now"
Mr.. GREY has seen and absorbed and
vet his conception of what happened
seems to be peculiarly his own. We
suspect that he feels all the true
novelist creators affection for Jean
rsbel and Ellen Jorth, the children OF
the leaders in the feud Jean Isbel
was summoned from Oregon to aid
his father and his half brothers in the
war which they saw approaching be-
tween themselves and the encroaching
sheep herders Jean has Indian blood
in his veins. and this helps him in
ambushing the family's desperate enc
mics. There are two sieges in the
story. the first an attempt of the Jorth
faction to wipe ott all the Isbels by
surprise. and the second the retalia-
tion by the Isbels. IN the final chap
ter only Jean and Ellen survive and
lean Is able 70 say: You're a Jorth
and I'm an Isbel We've blood on our
hands-both of us--I for you and you
for mel"
Mr.. Grey gives those readers who
like blood their monev's worth. There
is a Hash Knife gang of rustlers and
an imported Texas gunman who figure
in the story. Nearly every one shoots
to kill. The people of the story arc
little more than animated targets.
Zane Grey treats his subjects as King
Buno OF Swaziland did when he Sc
cured rife. But Grey's real en-
thusiasm is for his setting. He is a
Action scene painter Of no mean order.
as the readers first sight of Tonto
Pasiu proves
"He felt n sheer force. downward
drawing of an irnme~se abvss beneath
him. II seered 70 he stu
pendous gu,f surrounded on three
sides nv bold undu'ating lines Of
peaks. and on his side by wall 80
high that he felt lifted aloft on the
rim OF the sky.
For leagues and leagues a colossal
red and yellow wSd. O rampant, a