Zane Gray (1872-1939) was an American author most popular for his western adventure books and novels. Many of his works were adapted for film and television, the most notable being The Lone Star Ranger (1915). Gray was also the author of The Last of the Plainsmen, a biography of the life of Charles Jesse Jones.
Charles Jesse Jones (1844-1919) was a quintessential frontiersman. Although he was a well practiced game hunter, Jones made serious efforts to revive the bison, buffalo, and musk ox species in his later years. Jones was known as the “Savior of the American Bison.”
The collection contains the original typescript of The Last of the Plainsmen with an excerpt of the final chapter in the author's handwriting; the other holograph corrections throughout are by a different hand. As well as correspondence attesting to the authenticity of the handwriting.