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Capturing the enigma that was Zane Grey
A strong argument for using size 24 flies
25/08/2026
Salty guide to a life of flyfishing on the ocean waves
27/08/2026
The Last Days of Zane Grey
by Vicki Hastrich
A$34.99 305 pages. Published by Allen & Unwin Australia. www.allenandunwin.com
WHAT an enigma Zane Grey was. Boastful yet shy, an outrageous womaniser; totally irresponsible with money; a selfish and self- obsessed loner who rode roughshod over people; an outrageous spendthrift; attention- seeking; nature lover; respectful of minorities; charismatic; Anglophobe; hated flying and was unable to drive: I could go on.
But this is a man who overcame the curse of being christened Pearl and went on to hold multiple world records, including the biggest fish taken on rod and line at the time (a 1041lb striped marlin).
He was a global celebrity; the world’s first millionaire author; inventor of the western
in literature. In 1929, Grey earned four times more than the famed baseball player Babe Ruth. Paramount released up to seven ZG pictures a year.You might dismiss him as someone who would be easy to dislike intensely, but at the same time, he is totally fascinating.
I own a substantial collection of books by him and about him; scripts; photos and letters. So I feel well qualified to say that Hastrich’s biography is among the finest – if not the best of all – books about him.
OK, it covers only a small part of his life, the time when he went to Australia for the first time in 1935 (though he was probably the world’s most travelled angler).This was his last great fishing trip, and it charts his waning powers as health, money worries and mortality all start to catch up with him. Best of all, it is superbly researched and written.The author has read wisely and well, compressing a story with so many threads into a tight narrative.
There is no sense that this is purely a small slice of his life either, because Hastrich has skilfully set everything in context, such as his strange romance with a 50-year-old woman whom he believed to be in her 20s. Grey is a serial lothario with younger women, despite the fact that he is 64.Yet his long-suffering and otherwise extremely practical wife Dolly puts up with his philandering, in the belief that they play an essential role in his creativity.
He had some successes in Australia, and not just with Lola Gornall, his secret lover. He accounts for a world record 1056lb tiger shark and an Australian record black marlin. He was instrumental in realising the potential of a tuna fishery. His mere presence and the publicity that accompanied his every move proved the key factor in alerting the world to the tremendous potential of Australian big- game fishing.
The Gornall story, from initial courtship to full-blown affair, is strangely fascinating. Grey sends her money, writes loving letters to her (many of their exchanges are recorded here) and even amends his schedule so that he can meet her.
On the downside, he is often credulous, believing in sea serpents and convinced that great white sharks could grow as long as 100 feet. His inability to catch a decent-sized one for the camera as part of the film White Death (echoes of Jaws here) certainly affected him, especially as the shots of the film’s 20ft villain were faked, and badly at that. Dolly wisely kept the poor reviews away from him. He also loses a great white estimated at 17ft, which may have changed his perspective of how successful his Down Under sojourn had been.
The book movingly covers the aftermath of the stroke that he suffered on August 11, 1937, which inititally affected him so badly that he could not sign his name. Suddenly, you sense that Grey, a man who had always been in total control of himself and his environment, is fading.
Hastrich even has the wisdom to end the story, not just with Grey’s death from a heart attack in 1939, but by tying up all loose ends and revealing just what happened to the rest of the many characters who play a role:the Grey family; Dolly; Lola and Chickie Nathan (who set a women’s world marlin record and is a fisherwoman every bit as bold as Grey himself, though nothing like as obsessed). There is even an update on the unseen players: how the Australian stocks of marlin, tuna and great white sharks are faring today. This is by far the best fishing book I’ve read this year.
Keith Elliott
