The Spirit of the Border...Retold for Young Readers

By Zane Grey

Book Overview

They Came From A Settled Land--To A Place Of Beauty, Blood And War. . . Jim and Joe Downs came from Virginia--one led by the call of God, the other by a thirst for adventure. In the Ohio River Valley, the handsome young preacher and his rogue and charming brother entered a storm of Indian wars, white men's treachery, and into the wilderness of a legendary fighter whose enemies knew him as the "Deathwind. . ." In this classic novel by America's greatest Western writer, the true life and times of Lewis Wetzel--a character every bit as towering as Daniel Boone--is set against the extraordinary saga of Jim and Joe Downs. As the two brothers make very different choices, as one woman loves them both, they will both learn, win and lose in the presence of a man larger than life--fighting a war all his own. . . Over 40 Million Copies Of Zane Grey's Novels Sold

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0786022639
• ISBN13: 9780786022632
• Release Date: November 2010
• Publisher: Pinnacle Books
• Length: 310 Pages
• Weight: 0.38 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 4.2" x 6.7"

Customer Reviews

Fun light historical storytrlling

Zane Grey is my favorite Pulp Western author. Better than Louis L'Amour, Max Brand etc. This isn't a true Western novel, but a good, fun American frontier history read. Part of his Ohio River trilogy.

The Spirit of the Border by Zane Grey

Great novel about the settling of the west. This was one of Zane Grey's best!

one of the best

Read this book almost twenty years ago and this is one novel that made its greatest impact on me. Made me a Zane Grey fan. Lost my first copy so I ordered another one. Still find it a great read.

Western Borders in the 1770's

Zane Grey's second novel about life along the early American western frontier. Drawn from personal family history, he captures the brutality and the compassion of the early pioneers and the Indian nations that they were dispossessing. Lewis Wetzel "Le vent de la mort", (Death Wind) is a prominent figure in this book. Wetzel is a genuine historical personage and is accurately portrayed as both a guardian to the border settlements and the Indian hater and killer he was known to be. The book follows the life and adventures of two brothers Jim and Joe, Jim a Christian missionary and Joe a gregarious newcomer to frontier life. Wetzel always known as a loner, develops a friendship with the young man Joe and trains him in the ways of forest woodcraft. All the while Jim struggles to strengthen and protect the already established Morvian Indian mission. All of this set against the intrigue of Indian politics,war and the rampaging murders and kidnappings of the white renegades Simon and Jim Girty. Although an historical novel, Zane Grey uses the various characters and happenings as a vehicle to give us a clear picture of the sentiment surrounding the precarious daily life for both the defenders of the Indian nations and those who acted as the American border rangers.

Hisrtorical Novel based on Fact. Late 1700 - to early 1800

Drawing upon ancestors notes, Zane Gray reconstructs the agony of America's initial transmontane western movement of the frontier away from the original colonies into the OHIO Valley where Indians and Whites contest for souls and Wetzel, and Indian hunter, pursues his cause in a most dramatic fashion. The book is a riveting account of true adventure the veiled backdrop of which is the continued occupation of the teritory occupied by British and Americans. An excellent introduction to further study of the the then misunderstood goal of Manifest Destiny.