What do you think?
Rate this book
The Vanishing American
Considered one of Zane Grey's best novels, The Vanishing American was originally published in serialized form in the Ladies Home Journal in 1922. It reveals Grey's empathy for the Native American and his deep concern for the future survival of that culture.
It is the story of Nophaie, a young Navajo, who is picked up by a party of whites at the age of seven. White parents bring the child up as though he were their own, eventually sending him to a prestigious Eastern college where he distinguishes himself by his outstanding athletic skill. The Vanishing American is about Nophaie's struggle to find a place in society. On a larger scale it is about all Native Americans and their future in America.
342 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1925
38 people are currently reading
216 people want to read
About the author
Zane Grey
2,071 books590 followersPearl Zane Grey was an American author best known for his popular adventure novels and stories that presented an idealized image of the rugged Old West. As of June 2007, the Internet Movie Database credits Grey with 110 films, one TV episode, and a series, Dick Powell's Zane Grey Theater based loosely on his novels and short stories.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
August 31, 2018
The majestic scenery, the pensive melancholy, the introspective nature, the plights of the Native American. A love letter, a tribute, and a remorseful apology all at once and swirling all about one another.
This is a nuanced, heavy plot dealing with reservation encroachment, religion/spirituality, assimilation, miscegenation, as well as war and disease. The primary plot line is a romantic one, a young Navajo named Nophaie falls in love with a young white woman, Marian Warner, while completing their respective educations in the East. Nophaie returns the place of his birth, the home he was abducted from at the age of seven, in order to help his people, and Marian follows not long after. Nophaie was successful in the East and is respected in the West, but where does he belong in society? One is his home, the other indoctrinated him, molded his mind, and perhaps in doing so robbed him of part of his identity. This man torn between two worlds strives against what seems inevitably to be the waning of the time of the Native Americans. The plot is multifaceted, laced with both large and intimate themes, but ultimately it is not the plot that Grey does best, his true strength lies in the atmospheric, illustrative scenery.
This expository excerpt from the second page may not be the best example of his transportive abilities, but it gives one an idea of the lofty language on the natural surroundings that peppers his entire book. I personally enjoy these loquacious natural ponderings that I think of as Grey's trademark, they tend to give me that sense of smallness and at-one-with-nature notion that I generally only get from a days' immersion in some more idyllic landscape.
In this particular story I did notice that the characters' perception of the landscape evolved, or perhaps devolved would be more accurate, as the story progressed. There was always awe and reverence for nature, but some of the wonder at the majesty had turned to sorrow for the change towards barrenness. The very land seemed to mirror the decent that Nophaie's people were experienced. The life ebbed and leached out of both as if there were a link at both the level of their very essence and the physical. A really lovely book, full of tragedy and empathy and respect.
This is a nuanced, heavy plot dealing with reservation encroachment, religion/spirituality, assimilation, miscegenation, as well as war and disease. The primary plot line is a romantic one, a young Navajo named Nophaie falls in love with a young white woman, Marian Warner, while completing their respective educations in the East. Nophaie returns the place of his birth, the home he was abducted from at the age of seven, in order to help his people, and Marian follows not long after. Nophaie was successful in the East and is respected in the West, but where does he belong in society? One is his home, the other indoctrinated him, molded his mind, and perhaps in doing so robbed him of part of his identity. This man torn between two worlds strives against what seems inevitably to be the waning of the time of the Native Americans. The plot is multifaceted, laced with both large and intimate themes, but ultimately it is not the plot that Grey does best, his true strength lies in the atmospheric, illustrative scenery.
He seemed a part of the red and purple desert land. It was home. He had been born under the shadow of the wonderful mountain wall which zigzagged from east to west across the wasteland. The niches were canyons. Its broken segments were pinnacles and monuments, shafts of red stone lifted to the skies, bold, stark, and mighty, chiseled by wind and sand and frost. Between these walls and monuments spread the sandy floor of desert, always gray-spotted with sage, always gray-green with patches of grass and weed, purple in the distance.
This expository excerpt from the second page may not be the best example of his transportive abilities, but it gives one an idea of the lofty language on the natural surroundings that peppers his entire book. I personally enjoy these loquacious natural ponderings that I think of as Grey's trademark, they tend to give me that sense of smallness and at-one-with-nature notion that I generally only get from a days' immersion in some more idyllic landscape.
In this particular story I did notice that the characters' perception of the landscape evolved, or perhaps devolved would be more accurate, as the story progressed. There was always awe and reverence for nature, but some of the wonder at the majesty had turned to sorrow for the change towards barrenness. The very land seemed to mirror the decent that Nophaie's people were experienced. The life ebbed and leached out of both as if there were a link at both the level of their very essence and the physical. A really lovely book, full of tragedy and empathy and respect.
August 10, 2021
Zane Grey wrote The Vanishing American after undoubtedly a great deal of research. This is a story of an Indian boy stolen from his tribe by well-meaning white people. He is educated in the east (where is excels as a great athlete), then returns to his native lands as a young man to find the reservation more and more corrupt, his people being mistreated and lied to at all times, and he in the middle - feeling half-white and half-Indian, feeling that he neither really belongs to either.
The novel highlights the failure of the reservation system, the corruption all the way up to Washington from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the workings of Indian agents and missionaries. But it pairs these hard truths with the creation of a larger-than-life hero that just so over the top gives us "the noble savage," that idealized picture that was painted so often back then. To make matters worse - or to take matters further away from the aforementioned hard truths, Grey gives us a white heroine who has fallen madly in love with him, and he with her. All of that just feels ... wrong. That same man, that same story, without the idealism and romance, would have made this a powerful novel.
There's our hero fighting the system, there he is rediscovering himself, there he is trying to help, to even get his tribal relations to join in WWI (where more than 10'000 Indians did, in fact, volunteer - a main reason for it being that they were hoping that it would finally give them US citizenship and thus basic rights), there's our hero in a stunningly beautiful part of the world. That, without a doubt, is a wonderful strength of the novel - it feels like about half of it is spent on describing valleys, canyons, deserts, mesas, ridges, etc. - those descriptions are beautiful, vivid, full of color, full of senses.
As mentioned in the title, I've no doubt that this novel was exceedingly well-meant - but it was written in a way, with that noble savage frame, that was just far from realistic. I've read that the novel was actually written in serialized form in "Ladies' Home Journal" - and it really does feel like the novel was trying its best to tell a meaningful and important story, while at the same time giving its initial audience a hero to fawn over and a heroine to vicariously live through,
The novel highlights the failure of the reservation system, the corruption all the way up to Washington from the Bureau of Indian Affairs to the workings of Indian agents and missionaries. But it pairs these hard truths with the creation of a larger-than-life hero that just so over the top gives us "the noble savage," that idealized picture that was painted so often back then. To make matters worse - or to take matters further away from the aforementioned hard truths, Grey gives us a white heroine who has fallen madly in love with him, and he with her. All of that just feels ... wrong. That same man, that same story, without the idealism and romance, would have made this a powerful novel.
There's our hero fighting the system, there he is rediscovering himself, there he is trying to help, to even get his tribal relations to join in WWI (where more than 10'000 Indians did, in fact, volunteer - a main reason for it being that they were hoping that it would finally give them US citizenship and thus basic rights), there's our hero in a stunningly beautiful part of the world. That, without a doubt, is a wonderful strength of the novel - it feels like about half of it is spent on describing valleys, canyons, deserts, mesas, ridges, etc. - those descriptions are beautiful, vivid, full of color, full of senses.
As mentioned in the title, I've no doubt that this novel was exceedingly well-meant - but it was written in a way, with that noble savage frame, that was just far from realistic. I've read that the novel was actually written in serialized form in "Ladies' Home Journal" - and it really does feel like the novel was trying its best to tell a meaningful and important story, while at the same time giving its initial audience a hero to fawn over and a heroine to vicariously live through,
July 4, 2013
I discovered Zane Grey when I picked up a copy of "Riders of the Purple Sage" on a whim. The result was an epiphany for me. Here was an author (and a book) that I had known about since I was a teen. Five decades later I was blown away by Grey's characters, action, and especially in "Riders," powerful description of the magnificent Southwest landscape. Yes, some of the stereotypical western characters appear here, but it is important to remember that these tropes originate in Grey's novels. The original is often the greatest? Hmmm. So I started reading Grey novels as soon as I could find them--not an easy task.
The term "vanishing American" was used in the 1960s in reference to then current novels and films sympathetic to the American Indian cause. Grey's POV in "Vanishing American" is astoundingly contemporaty to the 21st century, especially considering it was published in 1922. Nophaie, the novel's hero, is an angst-ridden son of a Nopa (really, Navajo) chieftain, captured by rustlers but then educated up the whazoo by sympathetic white Easterners. He becomes a superstar athlete and a scholar, and then, almost predictably, falls in love with the Caucasian Marion. These are the typical ingredients of Grey's western romances like "Under the Tonto Rim" and "Code of the West."
The term "vanishing American" was used in the 1960s in reference to then current novels and films sympathetic to the American Indian cause. Grey's POV in "Vanishing American" is astoundingly contemporaty to the 21st century, especially considering it was published in 1922. Nophaie, the novel's hero, is an angst-ridden son of a Nopa (really, Navajo) chieftain, captured by rustlers but then educated up the whazoo by sympathetic white Easterners. He becomes a superstar athlete and a scholar, and then, almost predictably, falls in love with the Caucasian Marion. These are the typical ingredients of Grey's western romances like "Under the Tonto Rim" and "Code of the West."
August 6, 2015
Awesome, awesome and awesome. I'm SO glad this book was brought to my attention.
The Vanishing American is said to arguably be one of his greatest works. It tells the story of the love between Nophaie, a young Native American (or American Indian) man and his love for and with a woman by the name of Marian Warner. It was first published as a serial in the 1922 run of the Ladies Home Journal, a periodical that had over a couple million subscribers at the time. In 1925, it was then published as a novel and adapted for the screen, a cast that included Geronimo's grandson in a supporting role...
See the rest of my review at my blog:
http://tiffanyapanwritingproject.blog...
The Vanishing American is said to arguably be one of his greatest works. It tells the story of the love between Nophaie, a young Native American (or American Indian) man and his love for and with a woman by the name of Marian Warner. It was first published as a serial in the 1922 run of the Ladies Home Journal, a periodical that had over a couple million subscribers at the time. In 1925, it was then published as a novel and adapted for the screen, a cast that included Geronimo's grandson in a supporting role...
See the rest of my review at my blog:
http://tiffanyapanwritingproject.blog...
January 5, 2018
Zane Grey is at his best in descriptions and feelings generated by the mountains and desserts in the southwest (thinking the grand canyon area). It's also the story of a young indian raised by whites in the east and returned to his roots. He has a hard time assimilating; in fact it's so difficult for him that he can't even marry the white girl that he loves. I don't like the ending and if all of Mr. Grey's stories were this sad I would not read them ... but they aren't.
November 17, 2022
Red Man, Forgotten, Noble, our distant Predecessors
Even though I wasn't at their demise, greed, lust for power in land, did a very grave injustice to a race of people who didn't live the way of the coming horde! We railed that they were simi-intelligent, not worthy of respect, not taught in the ways of the race of people and took full advantage of their way of life, respecting the land, and not Infringing on others! Sad story but the "TRUTH"!!
Even though I wasn't at their demise, greed, lust for power in land, did a very grave injustice to a race of people who didn't live the way of the coming horde! We railed that they were simi-intelligent, not worthy of respect, not taught in the ways of the race of people and took full advantage of their way of life, respecting the land, and not Infringing on others! Sad story but the "TRUTH"!!
February 3, 2013
A brilliant novel. I still need to read the unedited original version.
May 18, 2013
Another Grey story that is simple in plot, but illustrative about the changes Native American's faced in the early 20th century.
June 16, 2014
Incredibly sad. It hurts so well, though. It is a beautifully tragic portrait of how Americans did (and continue to) treat others. Extremely thought-provoking
July 24, 2022
Amazing descriptions of the Arizona desert! This gives another example of taking advantage of indigenous people by those who were supposed to help them.
October 7, 2022
Mystic and thoughtful
Reader, you must think carefully and use your imagination. There is much beautiful description. Take your time and use your mental ability.
Reader, you must think carefully and use your imagination. There is much beautiful description. Take your time and use your mental ability.
September 17, 2016
would have been 4 stars but I hated the ending!!
September 29, 2025
Popular American fascination with cowboy stories in the mid-20th Century tended to harken back to an imagined era of frontier lawlessness. What makes this Zane Grey novel particularly interesting is that when he wrote it, it was written as a contemporary tale. Published in 1922 and largely set on an Indian reservation, there is no frontier theme. Law is well-established and power over Indian affairs is governed by distant U.S. government bureaucrats and swayed by influential missionaries. And the first World War and the Spanish Flu of 1918 both become significant plot points.
And there is no role to put John Wayne in this sober and progressive-for-its-time story. The ”vanishing American” is the Indian and his way of life. And Grey is highly critical of U.S. government policies towards Native Americans. The story’s protagonist, Nophaie, is dealt at least two great injustices. First, he is essentially kidnapped as a seven year-old boy and sent east to an Indian school, where he is denied access to his family and culture and raised as white. And second, when he eventually renounces his place in white society and returns to the reservation, he must endure characters and a system that put tribal needs at the mercy of unscrupulous men who were appointed to their positions without any input from the locals.
The big baddies in this story, Morgan and Blucher, are greedy white men who co-opt the limited wealth of the reservation’s farmland, force the natives to convert to Christianity, and predate upon young tribal girls. Grey’s sympathy for the powerlessness of Indians and women in particular are admirable, especially for his day. And I thought it especially thoughtful that the central tension experienced by Grey’s Indian protagonist, Nophaie, was that he found that following his kidnapping and education in the Indian school, he didn’t feel he belonged to either culture.
Aspects of reading Grey feel more 19th Century than 20th, with the long poetic passages about landscapes. The splendor of the western backdrop and the unforgiving nature of traveling dusty trails is worthy of description but it’s not something you see in modern novels, at least not to this degree.
Ahead bare hills of yellow stone loomed up high toward the overcast sky. Behind, the desert across the wash yawned wide, with level brown floor leading away to the trading post and then swelling to bolder heave, swept away to meet the irregular mesa wall, black against the sky.
And Grey can’t help himself – to him these natural spaces are Edens.
Nophaie led Marian in among the cedars. They were not numerous enough to make a forest, yet they furnished all that was needful to make this spot absolutely perfect in Marian's eyes.
Where the novel falls short – and ages especially poorly – is in bringing depth to its characters and avoiding tropes.
Indians are not what they appear to most white people. They are children of nature. They have noble hearts and beautiful minds.
The simple-minded, worshipful Indian maiden, primitive in her instincts and unsustained by any moral law, was merely prey for beasts of white men.
Grey’s characters are informed more by racial stereotypes than anything, rendering them largely flat. Modern eyes can’t help but note that some of these depictions are cringeworthy, but it’s perhaps even a little more damaging that the more prominent characters aren’t given a little more personality and made more relatable.
And there is no role to put John Wayne in this sober and progressive-for-its-time story. The ”vanishing American” is the Indian and his way of life. And Grey is highly critical of U.S. government policies towards Native Americans. The story’s protagonist, Nophaie, is dealt at least two great injustices. First, he is essentially kidnapped as a seven year-old boy and sent east to an Indian school, where he is denied access to his family and culture and raised as white. And second, when he eventually renounces his place in white society and returns to the reservation, he must endure characters and a system that put tribal needs at the mercy of unscrupulous men who were appointed to their positions without any input from the locals.
The big baddies in this story, Morgan and Blucher, are greedy white men who co-opt the limited wealth of the reservation’s farmland, force the natives to convert to Christianity, and predate upon young tribal girls. Grey’s sympathy for the powerlessness of Indians and women in particular are admirable, especially for his day. And I thought it especially thoughtful that the central tension experienced by Grey’s Indian protagonist, Nophaie, was that he found that following his kidnapping and education in the Indian school, he didn’t feel he belonged to either culture.
Aspects of reading Grey feel more 19th Century than 20th, with the long poetic passages about landscapes. The splendor of the western backdrop and the unforgiving nature of traveling dusty trails is worthy of description but it’s not something you see in modern novels, at least not to this degree.
Ahead bare hills of yellow stone loomed up high toward the overcast sky. Behind, the desert across the wash yawned wide, with level brown floor leading away to the trading post and then swelling to bolder heave, swept away to meet the irregular mesa wall, black against the sky.
And Grey can’t help himself – to him these natural spaces are Edens.
Nophaie led Marian in among the cedars. They were not numerous enough to make a forest, yet they furnished all that was needful to make this spot absolutely perfect in Marian's eyes.
Where the novel falls short – and ages especially poorly – is in bringing depth to its characters and avoiding tropes.
Indians are not what they appear to most white people. They are children of nature. They have noble hearts and beautiful minds.
The simple-minded, worshipful Indian maiden, primitive in her instincts and unsustained by any moral law, was merely prey for beasts of white men.
Grey’s characters are informed more by racial stereotypes than anything, rendering them largely flat. Modern eyes can’t help but note that some of these depictions are cringeworthy, but it’s perhaps even a little more damaging that the more prominent characters aren’t given a little more personality and made more relatable.
February 6, 2021
Not long after World War One and the Spanish Influenza, Zane Grey wrote, The Vanishing American, incorporating both events into the story. It's a novel with two main characters and a romance, but told in an unconventional way. At the heart of The Vanishing American is Nophaie, both an Indian and a White Man who is searching for his identity. Marian, his Caucasion girlfriend, is trying to figure out what exactly is her role in life. Even though there is a romance, the story keeps shifting between both characters, not dwelling on them together. When dealing with Nophaie, who was born an Indian, but brought up by White people, we almost delve into the metaphysical. Landscape description is not only described in great detail but becomes a sort of character as well. And the bad guys are almost a separate story in themselves. Not your standard read for sure, but stay with it to the end. And here's the rub, there are 2 endings! The original, which appeared in 1922, then re-appeared in 1976 in the book, Zane Grey's Greatest Indian Stories, then was put back into the novel soon after by his son.
The original ending caused a protest but today it might be the hands down winner! Try to read both and decide on your own! Some minor notes: Pahute Indian as written in the book is more commonly spelled today, Paiute. Marian's Indian name, as given to her by Nophaie, was(at least in a 1926 printing),Benow di Cleash. In the original ending, from 1976, it's spelled Benow de Cleash! Which is correct?
The original ending caused a protest but today it might be the hands down winner! Try to read both and decide on your own! Some minor notes: Pahute Indian as written in the book is more commonly spelled today, Paiute. Marian's Indian name, as given to her by Nophaie, was(at least in a 1926 printing),Benow di Cleash. In the original ending, from 1976, it's spelled Benow de Cleash! Which is correct?
June 27, 2020
This is another of Zane Grey's best-known books, with romantic descriptions of the western landscape. The central character is Nophaie, a Navajo who was kidnapped as a child, educated and raised by whites. Grey sees him as a noble character on a spiritual journey that involves a lot of time off in the wilderness. His white upbringing caused him to reject native religion, but he cannot fully embrace Christianity. Nophaie becomes a hero--enlisting and recruiting other Navajos to fight in World War I and trying to protect a young girl from the predations of a missionary running an Indian school. Like other Zane Grey books, this one is highly critical of missionaries and government Indian agents and unfortunately is grounded in fact. Some events in the book, especially the murder of a Navajo for keeping his daughter out of school, are based on actual events, backed up in historical records. There is a romantic plot line involving Nophaie and a white woman he met while living in the East, Marian Warner.
Unfortunately, this is a tragic story.
Unfortunately, this is a tragic story.
July 2, 2021
I've never read a book by Zane Grey before, and I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed reading, The Vanishing American. It wasn't the easiest read, mainly because the vocabulary is a hundred years old, but I thought Zane's descriptive writing style truly helped me garner a taste of the environment of the setting. It was an interesting story as well, and since I've never read any of his stories before, I wasn't sure if he often concluded with a happy ending or what. I'd definitely read more by him after reading this novel.
March 18, 2024
It's been a few years since I read it and all I remember from this book was all the absolutely endless prosing about "Oh Nopahs! Oh sunsets and rocks! Oh Indians! oh beautiful sage and scenery!" It was my friends book and we read it around the same time and laughed at it quite a bit because Grey just COULD NOT get over the scenery in this story.
Also that the main characters It made me so mad when I got to the end. I don't think the friend kept the book after she finished it.
Also that the main characters It made me so mad when I got to the end. I don't think the friend kept the book after she finished it.
July 17, 2024
3 1/2 -
I think that this book is such an interesting historical view on how Native American rights were viewed in the 1920s. Although Zane Grey has some very compelling lines that understands the complexity of the story SO WELL, sometimes it's far too dated for me to give it a higher rating. Honestly, with some fixing this could be an incredibly AMAZING book and I believe that the motivation for writing it was something Zane Grey was already quite ahead of his time for.
Although DO NOT! watch the 1925 silent film of this book it is so bad and changes a lot of the plot for the worse.
I think that this book is such an interesting historical view on how Native American rights were viewed in the 1920s. Although Zane Grey has some very compelling lines that understands the complexity of the story SO WELL, sometimes it's far too dated for me to give it a higher rating. Honestly, with some fixing this could be an incredibly AMAZING book and I believe that the motivation for writing it was something Zane Grey was already quite ahead of his time for.
Although DO NOT! watch the 1925 silent film of this book it is so bad and changes a lot of the plot for the worse.
November 26, 2025
2.5
Not gonna lie this kinda became background noise at times so I wasn't super focused 100% of the time but for the book being 100 years old it wasn't bad. I'm honestly surprised that a book like this was written back then but I'm glad it was. We need more books like this, ones that support Native Americans and Indigenous people.
There is a movie based on this book? it's from the 50s so I'm sure it's not great lol
Not gonna lie this kinda became background noise at times so I wasn't super focused 100% of the time but for the book being 100 years old it wasn't bad. I'm honestly surprised that a book like this was written back then but I'm glad it was. We need more books like this, ones that support Native Americans and Indigenous people.
There is a movie based on this book? it's from the 50s so I'm sure it's not great lol
September 17, 2019
A unique melodrama bogged down by picaresque locations.
November 14, 2019
Grey is sympathetic but the book’s attitude is sometimes dated. Landscape is evoked with insight and awareness.
April 2, 2021
Zane Grey Rocks/Rocked - read every one of his books growing up
Read
April 20, 2021paper
September 14, 2022
Insightful!!
April 13, 2023
Gothic?
This is a good book and although judged gothic, is scary but lacks horror. A conflict between being an American and Indian.
This is a good book and although judged gothic, is scary but lacks horror. A conflict between being an American and Indian.
February 27, 2025
Very disappointing
March 20, 2016
I have had a small desire to read Zane Grey for some time now. The Vanishing American was written around 1922 originally and put out in Ladies Home journal in a series unless I am mistaken. The copyright was not actually owned by Grey until 1953. The book caused concern by certain powers that be as a result of descriptions of missionaries unscrupulous work with the then called Indians. Grey's son wrote a forward for this edition describing this. All that said, the book read fairly easily for me. I found the plot less fascinating than I hoped. The tale is not a rootin' tootin' affair that I grew up used to watching "cowboys and Indians". I have no doubt that some people would love the book though. Grey does a lot of description in this book of the desert, high and low, which tries to glorify the beauty of it as it goes through light changes during the day and season changes during the year. He does a nice job of it but it's not something I enjoy reading as much as this book has. The action that takes place flows pretty well. The characters are well portrayed and multi faceted. For me, I like things more clear cut. It is my own flaw. The Indians are the protagonists here and the missionaries the villains. I liked it that way. To get your mindset here, this tale has horses and riding in it, but it also has cars in their early forms. Finally, I am going to include the last paragraph of the book here so you can get an idea of Grey's writing soul. It won't ruin the story for you, it just gives you a flavor sample. Again, this is copied directly from the book, and is Grey's writing, not mine.
"At last only one Indian was left on the darkening horizon-the solitary Shoie-bent in his saddle, a melancholy figure, unreal and strange against that dying sunset-moving on, diminishing, fading, vanishing-vanishing."
"At last only one Indian was left on the darkening horizon-the solitary Shoie-bent in his saddle, a melancholy figure, unreal and strange against that dying sunset-moving on, diminishing, fading, vanishing-vanishing."
May 13, 2018
2 ½ - 3 stars
August 1, 2012
Boooooring
Read
July 27, 2017needlessly long. well-intentioned novel. makes a good case against the white man, just takes a little too long to do so. 5 stars for subtle moralising. 3 for the novel itself
Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews