BYU exhibition, Literary Worlds.

Caricature of Chesterton
by David Low from
Lions and Lambs (1928),
NYPL

The Literary Worlds: Illumination of the Mind exhibition in Special Collections at Brigham Young University's Harold B. Lee Library focuses on the creative processes of writers. Among those included are Louisa May Alcott, Edward Bulwer Lytton, Orson Scott Card, G. K. Chesterton, Arthur Conan Doyle, Zane Grey, Eden Phillpotts, and Robert Louis Stevenson. It's on display until June, and some materials can be accessed online. I'm rather astounded that the précis on Chesterton fails to mention Father Brown.

Steal this book.

As the October 15, 1922, Library Journal reported in "Favorite Books of the Lightfingered," the books of mystery writers were the most

Sax Rohmer, from the
New York Tribune,
Apr 18, 1920

popular ones taken from the Grand Rapids Public Library, along with those of adventure and western authors. Among those most popular with thieves:

• Zane Grey, including 3 copies of Rainbow Trail (1915)

• E. Phillips Oppenheim

• Mary Roberts Rinehart, Amazing Interlude (1918) and More Tish (1921)

• Sax Rohmer, The Golden Scorpion (1919; "a galloping, breath-taking yarn" according to its advertisements)

Happy birthday, Zane Grey.

Legendary Western novelist Zane Grey, best known for Riders of the Purple Sage (1912), was born today in Zanesville, Ohio, in 1872. Before his death in 1939, he had produced nearly 90 books, many of them adapted for film (such as The Last Trail with Tom Mix, 1927). During an eight-year period (1917 to 1924), a Grey book appeared on the bestseller list every year.

Check out the West Society's "Why You Should Read Zane Grey."