Fascinating selection of Zane Grey's handwritten diary from his fortuitous trip to New York City in January of 1920, 10 pages in ink, 3.75 x 6.75, dated from January 1st to the 18th, unsigned, but bearing his blindstamp to the upper margin of the first page. The pages show Grey at the height of his popularity, surrounded at all sides by publishers eager to cash in on his now household name. Highlighted passages read as follows:
January 1, from the McAlpin Hotel: “Last night I saw and heard the old year out, and my vantage point was like some vast promontory overlooking a gulf. My place was at a window of the 21st story of this magnificent hotel and even the tall buildings around all seemed far below me. The sky was dark, murky, obscure, with streaky stormy clouds, and through it shot a ray of white dazzling light from the tower of the Times Building...In the hotel lobbies and parlors from 10:30 till 11:30 I watched the women. I have just come from the west, where I had been for two years. Ordinarily women are fascinating to me, but after this lapse of time sojourning among more primitive and less attractive women I was enchanted and shocked. Women seemed to be beautiful and half undressed. Shoulders, arms...all dazzlingly white, exposed to the gaze of man! It is the new style. The gowns were very short.”
January 11th: “I seem to find myself a name to reckon with in the world of publishers. I have two offers, three perhaps, that are larger than any ever offered an American writer. I am in the throes of struggles with Harpers...The Editor of McClure’s told me that my books were real American, and out of the great and boundless west where America must look for salvation — to get back to the earth — to produce wheat and power and brain.”
January 14th: “Sir Ernest Hodder-Williams, the greatest of London publishers, is here and he has taken over my books and will push them wherever English is read. McClure’s will publish serially my last story of the desert. Their attitude towards my work is most encouraging and inspiring, not to mention the large price they are willing to pay. Doubleday, Page & Co. have made me a magnificent offer, almost equaling Doran’s (which was the largest ever made to an American writer).”
January 18th: “I have been sick for two days, confined to my room...Rotten cold in my head! This is the first one I have had since I was in N.Y. two winters ago. Moral! Stay away from N.Y. in winter...Kaufman & Towne of McClure’s gave me $15,000 for my serial rights of my Wasteland story. Mr. Currie of the Curtis Pub. Co. came on to interview me, and paid me the highest compliment. He offered me $10,000 for a novel this year. $12,000 next year, 15,000 next, and so on. Also he offered me $800 for outdoor stories of 5 to 6 thousand words. This is extraordinary and almost incredible...Grosset & Dunlap sold a million of my book last year, and have made a campaign for 2 million this year. Also they will bring out my juveniles and my baseball stories in reprint this year. They sent me a check for $1500, semi-annual royalties on Betty Zane...This is the most extraordinary predicament I ever fell into. I am dazed. I don’t know what to do. Doubleday, Page & Co. are trying to buy the rights of my books from Harpers, with a view to taking on all my work. But there seems no hope of Harpers selling." In overall fine condition.
