The Rainbow Trail (Summarized Edition)

The Rainbow Trail, Zane Grey's sequel to Riders of the Purple Sage, returns to Utah's canyonlands in a chase that doubles as spiritual inquiry. John Shefford seeks the vanished Lassiter and Jane Withersteen and confronts a clandestine system of "sealed" wives while guiding Fay Larkin toward freedom, all beneath the austere grandeur of Rainbow Bridge. Grey's cinematic, melodically descriptive prose makes landscape a moral agent, situating the novel within Progressive Era debates over Mormon polygamy, law, and individual conscience. Grey, a dentist turned bestselling outdoorsman-author, refashioned notes from pack trips through Arizona and southern Utah into fiction. Traveling with local guides and observing Mormon settlements and Indigenous trails, he developed a documentary eye for sandstone, weather, and isolation. His belief that wilderness tests character, alongside contemporary quarrels over religious authority, clearly propelled this continuation of his frontier saga. Recommended to readers of Western literature, American religious history, and environmental writing, The Rainbow Trail couples breathless pursuit with a measured critique of coercive community. It completes Riders of the Purple Sage with moral clarity and scenic splendor, rewarding scholars and general readers in equal measure. Quickie Classics summarizes timeless works with precision, preserving the author's voice and keeping the prose clear, fast, and readable—distilled, never diluted. Enriched Edition extras: Introduction · Synopsis · Historical Context · Brief Analysis · 4 Reflection Q&As · Editorial Footnotes.