HORSE HEAVEN HILL

"The worst book Zane Grey ever wrote" is how Dr. Joe Wheeler rates this book in his dissertation about Zane Grey. But Professor Carlton Jackson noted authority on Zane Grey and editor of Zane Grey's manuscript "George Washington, Frontiersman" disagrees, citing in part the problem with the book is: The editors at Harpers, believing it would make the book more Zane Grey decided to alter the time period of the piece by moving it back to the 1870's or 1880's instead of leaving it in the early 20th century as was originally intended by Zane Grey. When one takes that into consideration and imagines what differences that might make to the story, then Horse Heaven Hill is not a "bad" book at all, only an average Zane Grey book worthy of investigation and reading. The plot revolves around Lark Burrell, who grew up on a ranch in Idaho, her mother a Nez Perce Indian, who loves wild horses. She is forced to leave there when her father dies and go live with the Wades, distant cousins. Her cousin Marigold is engaged to Stanley Weston, a college graduate like Marigold, but he soon discovers after returning home to run the ranch for his invalid father that he has more in common with Lark than he does with Marigold. Lark knows ranching and loves wild horses. It all comes to a head when Hurd Blanding decides to capture a herd of wild horses to sell then for chicken feed--which both Stanley and Lark violently oppose. But only Lark has the will to immediately do something about it. This is typical Zane Grey romance with its usual conflicts and complications between the two eventual lovers; highly readable, easily enjoyable. I think made more so if the original holographic manuscript could be found and the book restored and printed as Zane Grey intended.