ZANE GREY - AUTOGRAPH LETTER SIGNED CIRCA 1912 - HFSID 266584

ZANE GREY. ALS: "Doc" in pencil, 1p, 6x9. Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, no date, Tuesday. On pictorial Cottage Point letterhead of Cottage Point to his wife, Dolly. In full: "This key is the only one I know of that may fit. I thought you had keys. Cheer up. Baby Romer is O.K. He's having a grand time, and this is the place for him. You needn't worry any more about him. With love, Hastinly". Lightly creased with folds, not at signature. ¼-inch tear at upper left blank edge. Fine condition. Accompanied by original envelope, 6x3½. Addressed by Grey in pencil to: "Mrs. Zane Grey/550 West 157 St/New York City/NY." 2-cent Washington stamp affixed, postmarked Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, 1912 June 4. Lightly creased and soiled. Torn open at upper edge, tourching postmark. Ink date (unknown hand) at lower left margin, pencil note (unknown hand) at upper margin. Overall, fine condition. Best known for his adventure stories of the American West, ZANE GREY (1872-1939), a former dentist born Pearl Zane Gray, published one of his most successful novels, Riders of the Purple Sage, in the year of this letter after it had been serialized in "Field & Stream" beginning in January 1912. Grey, who was known as "The Father of the Western Novel", published at least one Western novel a year, including Call of the Canyon and West of the Pecos, many of which were made into feature films. He also wrote numerous articles and books on fishing. Fishing and hunting were two of Grey's passions, and it was while on a fishing expedition to Lackawaxen in 1900 that he met 17-year-old LINA ELISE ROTH, whom he called "DOLLY". Grey and Dolly, who were married in 1905, settled into a farmhouse in Lackawaxen before taking a honeymoon trip to the West the following year. Despite her apparent worry over the couple's first-born son, ROMER, Dolly became a savvy literary agent and effective editor for her husband. In the year of this letter, the couple moved to a home in New York City built for Zane's brother, R.C., but they kept their home in Lackawaxen (Grey made his last visit there in 1929). After Dolly died in 1957, the couple's ashes are interred in the town's cemetery. Two items.