Zane Grey

The Rainbow Trail Illustrated Zane Grey

The Rainbow Trail, also known as The Desert Crucible, is Western author Zane Grey's sequel to Riders of the Purple Sage. Originally published under the title The Rainbow Trail in 1915, it was re-edited and re-released in recent years as The Desert Crucible with the original manuscript that Grey submitted to publishers. The novel takes place ten years after the events of Riders of the Purple Sage. The wall to Surprise Valley has broken, and Jane Withers teen is forced to choose between Glacier's life and Fay Lark in's marriage to a Mormon. The novel is the basis of a 1931 film of the same name. Frank McGrath, later of Wagon Train, made his acting debut in this film though his role is credited. Both novels are notable for their protagonists' mild opposition to Mormon polygamy, but in The Rainbow Trail, this theme is treated more explicitly. The plots of both books revolve around the victimization of women in the Mormon culture: events in Riders of the Purple Sage are centered on the struggle of a Mormon woman who sacrifices her wealth and social status to avoid becoming a junior wife of the head of a local church, while The Rainbow Trail contrasts the older Mormons with the rising generation of Mormon women who will not tolerate polygamy and Mormon men who do not seek it. A decade after Jane Withers teen, Lassie, and their adopted daughter, Fay Larking, escape through Deception Pass, the family faces new trials when Fay is abducted for marriage by a local Mormon group. As Fay struggles against forced marriage, she encounters John Shepherd, a cowboy searching for a new life, and who may be the only one who can free her. The sequel to Zane Grey's bestselling Riders of the Purple Sage, The Rainbow Trail was also published under the title The Desert Crucible.