The Border Legion

The Border Legion has without a doubt the greatest of Zane Grey's villains--the blond beast, Gulden, whose way with women was a rope and a cave, the most vicious and depraved of the border bandits. And as in earlier works by Zane Grey this novel had to undergo many editorial changes demanded by his publisher before they would print it. Things today which seem very tame indeed, but yet his editors felt did not belong in fiction, regardless of how historically accurate Zane Grey was being to actual events upon which this book was based. When Joan Randle decides to follow her 'boyfriend' Jim Cleve after he departs because of a quarrel she finds herself captured by this outlaw gang and held, only to find out Jim has joined them as well. (She had accused Jim of not being man enough to even be bad, so he sets out to prove her wrong.) This book is a fascinating look at what happens to men, I should say, mankind, when driven by their passions and left to revert to the barbaric when the environment is one of dog eat dog i.e. "survival of the fittest" a phrase used by Darwin and popularized by Zane Grey, as he subscribed to some of Darwin's theories, as seen in many of his novels as he expressed his philosophy of life, and concerns for America in his writings. It has been said more students learned of Darwin's theory from reading Zane Grey than they did in the class room. But if one goes beyond any "hidden" agenda and reads this book as a novel of escapism and adventure and romance it is a good read I think you will enjoy.

P.S. If you want the unexpurgated version as Zane Grey wrote it buy a copy of Cabin Gulch, Five Star Westerns 2006.