Wildfire — Zane Grey, Grosset & Dunlap c.1920

📖 Wildfire by Zane Grey (Harper & Brothers, 1917; this Grosset & Dunlap photoplay edition, c.1920) — A Colorado rancher’s daughter tames a wild stallion in Zane Grey’s gripping tale of frontier romance, horse racing, and desert adventure. This copy features Frank Tenney Johnson illustrations and photographic stills from the 1922 Goldwyn Picture When Romance Rides.

QUICK FACTS

• Author: Zane Grey (1872–1939), one of America’s best-selling early 20th-century novelists
• Publisher: Grosset & Dunlap, New York (by arrangement with Harper & Brothers)
• Year: 1917 copyright; this photoplay edition c.1920 (based on rear advertisements)
• Format: Hardcover in red cloth, no dust jacket
• Pages: Not paginated | ISBN: None (pre-ISBN era)
• Condition: Very Good — full report below

THE STORY

Lucy Bostil, daughter of a Colorado ranch owner, discovers Lin Slone, a horse hunter half-dead from his pursuit of a magnificent wild stallion. She revives Slone and they name the captured horse Wildfire. With her favorite colt Buckles stolen, Lucy agrees to tame and train Wildfire for a high-stakes race against Sage King, the finest horse in the San Juan country. The novel builds through rivalries, jealousies, and desert tracking scenes to a climactic race that tests both horse and rider against impossible odds.

Published in 1917, Wildfire draws on Grey’s firsthand knowledge of the American West — he spent years among cattlemen and horsemen in Utah and Colorado before becoming a novelist. The book ranks among his most admired works for its vivid landscape descriptions and its detailed portrayal of wild horse behavior.

THIS EDITION

This is a Grosset & Dunlap photoplay reprint edition, produced by arrangement with the original publisher, Harper & Brothers. The copyright page retains Harper & Brothers’ 1916 copyright and January 1917 publication date, with the printer’s code H-A. Grosset & Dunlap was America’s leading publisher of affordable reprints in the early 20th century, and their photoplay editions — timed to coincide with film adaptations — are now collected as early examples of movie tie-in publishing.

The photoplay stills in this edition are from When Romance Rides (1922), a Goldwyn Pictures release directed by Eliot Howe, Charles O. Rush, and Jean Hersholt, starring Claire Adams as Lucy Bostil. Ads for other Grosset & Dunlap titles in the rear of this copy place its printing to approximately 1920.

COVER ART & ILLUSTRATIONS

The binding is red cloth with black stamped lettering: “WILDFIRE” and “ZANE GREY” on the front cover, with a minimalist typographic design. The spine features “WILDFIRE” at the head, a decorative diamond-shaped publisher’s device, “ZANE GREY” below, and “GROSSET & DUNLAP” at the tail.

The frontispiece is a photographic still from When Romance Rides captioned “Claire Adams tell Wildfire that he must win the race — ‘When Romance Calls'” — depicting Adams alongside a horse in 1920s costume. An additional plate illustration by Frank Tenney Johnson appears in the text. Johnson (1874–1939) was a painter of the Old American West, educated at the Milwaukee School of Art and the Art Students League of New York. He popularized a moonlit Western painting style known as “The Johnson Moonlight Technique” and earned the Samuel T. Shaw prize. His illustrations for this edition add genuine Western art value beyond the photoplay stills.

WHY IT MATTERS

• Zane Grey was the most widely read American novelist of the early 20th century — his books sold millions of copies and defined the Western genre for a generation
• Frank Tenney Johnson was one of the premier Western painters of his era; his illustrations add collectible art value to this edition
• Grosset & Dunlap photoplay editions are significant artifacts of early Hollywood tie-in publishing, predating modern movie tie-in paperbacks by decades
• The 1922 Goldwyn Picture When Romance Rides is a lost film — these photoplay stills may be among the few surviving visual records

FREQUENTLY ASKED

What edition is this? Grosset & Dunlap photoplay reprint edition, printed by arrangement with Harper & Brothers. Copyright 1916/1917; this printing circa 1920 based on rear advertisements.

What condition is it in? Very Good — see full condition report below.

Is it signed? No, but there is a pencil inscription (“O. Cella”) on the front flyleaf from a previous owner.

FOR COLLECTORS

This photoplay edition ties together three collecting interests: Zane Grey Western fiction, Frank Tenney Johnson illustration art, and early Hollywood memorabilia. The When Romance Rides film is considered lost, making these photoplay stills among the few surviving visual documents of the adaptation. Grosset & Dunlap photoplay editions in solid condition remain undervalued relative to their historical significance.

Condition Report

Overall Grade: Very Good (VG)

Cover & Spine: Red cloth boards remain vibrant with crisp black stamped lettering and decorative publisher device to spine; softening to spine head and tail. Front board has a small tear in the cloth wrap at the bottom edge near lower corner and is frayed at the corner. Back board has a small chip in the cloth toward the bottom of the outer edge.

Dust Jacket: None present.

Text Block & Pages: Text block edges are lightly age-toned; neat early owner inscription (“O. Cella”) to the front flyleaf; interior pages are clean, supple, and complete with faint, uniform age-toning, a few spots here or there on some pages.

Binding: Solid, square, and tight; hinges are intact with no split endpapers.

See accompanying images for full condition details. Will ship promptly, carefully packaged.

HFB-SEO-v1: 2026-08-19

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