Zane Grey (31 January 1872-23 October 1939) was an American author and dentist by profession. He is known for his popular westerns and adventure novels that idealized the American frontier. Riders of the Purple Sage (1912) was his best-selling book that established him as the top name of the genre and gave the Western a new lease of life with other writers like Max Brand and Ernest Haycox (also published in the Yellowbacks range) also beginning to write. In addition to the success of his printed works, his books have second lives and continuing influence adapted for films and television. His novels and short stories were adapted into 112 films, two television episodes, and a television series, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theatre.