The Desert of Wheat

by Zane Grey

This book was converted from its physical edition to the digital format by a community of volunteers. You may find it for free on the web. Purchase of the Kindle edition includes wireless delivery.

Genres: Westerns, Fiction, Classics, Historical Fiction, Ebooks

357 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 1918

About the author

Pearl 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.

Reviews

[Kimbolimbo · Rating 2 out of 5]

I might revise my rating and bump this book up to 3 stars...I'll have to sit on the thought for a while. This book was extremely anti-German and packed full of propoganda. If you ever wondered about Zane Grey's political opinions than this book will make them clear. It takes place during WW1. He tackles the war, liberty bonds, labor unions...more specifically the IWW (look it up), capitolism, socialism, foreign encroachments, the Constitution, vigilantism, PTSD, women vs. men, love, family, hard work, ineptness, wheat, patriotism, and immigration/deportation.

My favorite anti-German quote was: "Only death changes the state of a real German, physical, moral, and spiritual." Good thing my German blood has been diluted with Norwegian and Welsh blood.

I felt like this book (published 1918) went hand-in-hand with a few contemporary books of the time (that I have read): The 39 Steps (1915, John Buchan) and The Green Rust (1919, Edgar Wallace). Each of those were anti-German with German Conspiracy Theories involving plots to take over the world using German gold. I also felt like this book might have had an influence in Edward Abbey's Monkey Wrench Gang (1975), at least the IWW had an influence in both of these books. And maybe Ayn Rand enjoyed reading a little Zane Grey before writing Atlas Shrugged (1957).

[Dave · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is one of the best books I have read in a while. Granted many of my recent books have been fluff, entertainment only books. This book details the struggle of a young wheat farmer at the beginning on WWI. He is of German heritage and struggles with that as well as Labor Unions and the love he feels for the rich farmer's daughter. The author does a great job of detailing the surrounding and the feelings of both the young farmer and the rich farmer's daughter. This story touched me on many levels having grown up on a farm as well. This is very well written and a book I will probably read again which I don't do much unless I am really engaged with the characters.

[Cherie · Rating 4 out of 5]

TBD

[Richard Koerner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Having long flights of four or more hours makes it easy to do some good reading. I used our trip to Puerto Rico to do that and I thoroughly enjoyed this Zane Gray read. I especially enjoyed its view of unions and also the views of people who worked hard and felt that they were not sharing the benefits. It was interesting to see how those in charge ended up seeing things differently and even mending their ways. It was also interesting to see a German-American before WWI trying to figure out his place in the world and how he really fit in as he clashed with a German father who lost his realization of how he was truly more American than German and needed to identify that. The ending was really not what I expected, it dropped off.

[Mike Zickar · Rating 2 out of 5]

A chaotic book that has multiple parts and themes that don't really fit well together. The initial story is about the IWW anarchist union trying to gain control of the wheat fields of the Northwest. Grey paints the IWW as a terrorist organization that is a front for German interests, total reactionary propaganda.

There is a love story, interestingly between social classes, and then the last 40% is about WWI and the horrors that people experienced. This last part of the book is better than the first.

This was a tough one to get through.

[John · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Desert of Wheat by Zane Grey contained several surprising locales that were not typical for this author, namely eastern Washington state, New York, and France. The time period for this novel is the beginning of World War I, which Grey must have experienced as an American reading the newspapers of his time.

In considering much of Grey's philosophy during this novel, and his violent war scenes that took place in France, I believe the book is very comparable with the contemporary 1922 novel by Willa Cather entitled "One of Ours" for which she received the Pulitzer Prize for that year. Surprisingly the novels were only published two years apart.

There were two pieces of trivia I found very interesting from this novel that have, more or less, been lost to the ages. The first was the use of the number set 3-7-77 hanging on the plaque of a vigilante victim who was hung from a bridge. Although Grey does not delve into his use of this number, I found that it was first used in Virginia City, Montana when vigilantes were forced to take the law into their own hands, because outlaws were becoming so rampant. No one knows, for certain, what the number represents, but it is speculated that it may represent the dimensions of a grave or the cost of a $3 stagecoach ticket at 7:00 a.m. to take the 77-mile trip from Helena to Butte (i.e. to get out of town). Interestingly, something Grey would not have known, is that the Montana State Highway Patrol patch, now displays that number.

The other fact that Grey mentions, was German soldiers coining the term Blue Devils for some French soldiers. I found nothing on the internet regarding that title until I came across an article regarding a French World War I soldier name Albert Roche. Roche, considered one of the Blue Devils, performed several heroic feats during the war including personally capturing about 1,100 German soldiers. I'm not sure how much of his story is legend, but it was an interesting read.

At any rate, I enjoyed Grey's novel immensely, but sometimes became a little bogged down with the unusual amount of philosophizing he offers which seemed much more than his previous novels. If nothing else it did make me think about different aspects of this book including the importance of food production and the horrors of war. Overall the books teaches some timely lessons for any age.

[Cindy · Rating 2 out of 5]

If someone asked I would say this book is just OK. The story takes place in Washington state. A group of wheat farmers are facing drought and a nasty workers union called the IWW. Plus it is set during World War 1. Many families are sending their boys off to war. I grew up in farm country. The wheat was a character. Parts of this made me homesick. There are beautiful descriptions of the sound a wheat field makes when the wind blows through it. If you have seen a wheat field on a summer day, then you know about the most beautiful gold color on the horizon. Wheat farmers were prized during the war, because the United States needed more wheat production for the war effort. Some said the IWW was funded by the Germans, to gain an advantage by intimidation and burning fields if you did not join their union. I gave it 2 stars because the author tends to ramble, it was a little over the top. Wheat was mentioned over 445 times. I got tired of the characters feelings about love and war. That was way over done. When one of the wheat farmers, Kurt Dorn went off to war, the story turns into a ramble on war and what a soldier feels. He was half German and really went through a conflict. This is a sad reminder that some soldiers come home with serious post traumatic stress. My other reason for giving this 2 stars is that there is no ending.

[Lisa Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

The son of a German Farmer in Washinton state during WWI, decides to join the Army to fight the Germans and "kill" the German part of his heritage. Along the way, he falls in love with the daughter of a rich farmer, and then has to protect her and himself from a worldwide labor organization that is reaking havoc all over the country to cause problems with the war effort.

I am so glad that this wasn't the first Zane Grey book I ever read, as it was not that great. There were sweet and exciting parts in it, but for the most part, it was celebrating the glories of wheat - which you can only do for so long - and telling about how "terrible" the Germans were. And although I understood that he probably had some issues with them because of the war, it was taken completely to the extreme. I sort of forced my way through this one.

[Bob Rivera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read as part of the Zane Grey Mega Pack. This novel covers the time period as the United States was preparing to enter WWI. The story takes place in the Pacific Northwest, and centers around a wheat farm, the arrival of labor unions to farm workers, and the young hero, who is a first generation German American, desire to display his patriotism as part of the mobilizing US Expeditionary Force to France. Typical to a Zane Grey novel, there is a love story that the tome centers around. Unlike most of his novels, this one is very bittersweet. I enjoyed the read. You will too.

[Al · Rating 3 out of 5]

good camping reading.... read it while in eastern Washington which gave me some perspective as far as climate, etc. was concerned. Interesting take on the labor unrest caused by the IWW prior to WWI.

[Phillip Cushman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very much enjoyed this book from a later time than most of Zane Grey's work.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book. It was very moving and it helped me understand the mindset of the generation before and after World War I.

[Gerald Matzke · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting story about the conflicts that arise during a time of war. The war was WWI and the main character is conflicted between his sense of duty to fight as an American and his German-born father, his duty to his country to produce wheat for the war effort, and the love of his life. The story was very compelling but the author spent a great deal of time describing every thought that went through the young man’s mind. He also took great pains to explain and describe the process of growing wheat and extolling the beauty of a field of wheat. All of that eloquent excursus spoiled the flow of the story for me. Thus the three-star rating.

[Christopher Lutz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zane Grey seemed to have his cake and eat it too in regards to telling a story that was anti war and yet the Germans had “no souls” and had to be fought. PTSD wasn’t known yet so the reactions to WWI shell shock are antiquated as well. The book was at it’s best when it was focusing of the importance of wheat to helping the people of war torn Europe both during and after the war. He was absolutely right about that.

[Paul Harsin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not your everyday Zane Grey

Curt Dorn is a study in guilt, conflict, a man in relentless pain. I've read Grey's baseball stories, his pioneer trilogy, his lion stories and many of his westerns. I thought I knew Zane Grey.

This story is a world apart, about a wheat farmer with a father full of hatred and a woman governed by love. The Desert of Wheat is worth several evenings by the fireplace.

[William · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent listening

Due to eye issues Alexa reads to me. This novel is will written with interesting will developed characters. The story line is set at the beginning of WWI with 💘 love, spies, and growing up all in one story. I would recommend this novel to Zany Grey fans. Enjoy reading 🔰2021 👒

[Tommy Jacobs · Rating 4 out of 5]

I must fulfill my Jacobs' genes and read Zane Grey!

[Milt Jacobs · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best book ever. I like anything by Zane. This book makes me very nostalgic.

[George Clary · Rating 5 out of 5]

IWW

A good takeoff love growing wheat and living with day to day labor. Learning for better growth and being human.that faith helps

[Jacque · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nationalistic melodrama

[Holli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a recommendation from my sweet farmer. There is a relevant modern day connection to this history and a strong lesson to be learned: Don’t listen to what the say. Watch what they do.

[Steve Erdody · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this to be my least favorite Zane Grey book as it seemed to really drag along.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book. The setting itself was enough to get me interested in a book by an author I had heard of but with whose writing I was unfamiliar, yet I left The Desert of Wheat firmly convinced that it belonged in my bottom-5 books of all time.

I wouldn't have read the book had it not been a book club selection, and for that reason alone I powered through the melodramatic slop that Grey spewed out a century ago while setting a record for the number of eye rolls per page along the way. I don't use the word 'hate' often, and not without good reason. I hated this book. Hated, hated, hated it.

Let's look at the main character, Kurt Dorn. At the beginning, he's a likeable enough guy, the son of a German immigrant and an American-born woman who died before the beginning of the novel. Kurt makes it known early and often that he identifies far more with his American mother, and considers himself a full-blooded American just about from the get-go. He all but shuns his father for the unforgivable sin of being German.

I'd like to say Kurt becomes more likeable by the novel's end, after he's lived through the horrors of war, left with scars both visible and unseen. But rather than learn from the experience, Kurt doubles down on the ignorant, hateful rhetoric and vows never to change his mind. Way to go, Kurt. You might be the first character I've read that underwent reverse character growth.

All in all, the book is a product of its time. I'm sure those without the benefit of hindsight might think differently of it, but the fact is that this book is best left in the past where it insists on residing.

[Julier · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a historically inaccurate depiction of the "Wobblies"-- International Workers of the World who were involved in worker strikes for 8-hour days and decent wages. Read The Cold Millions for a fictionalized view of their pathetic working conditions with the implicit support of the corrupted local law enforcers. A revised version that incorporated Zane Grey's notes on his original manuscript was republished as War Comes to the Big Bend: A Western Story. see my review below: War Comes to the Big Bend: A Western Story by Zane Grey




WARNING: "Fake News" fueled the belief that the Wobblies (IWW-International Workers of the World)were German-financed and backed and intent on destroying the Washington state wheat crop (to undermine our war efforts). Burning wheat fields and attacking farmers and farm workers, etc., did not actually happen although many still believe it did. Zane Grey (first millionaire western writer) wrote about what people were saying and writing at the time, and he excels at describing the topography of different parts of the state. I read this in a local History Book Discussion 6-session-class and learned a lot about history in my area--especially from the folks who have lived here for decades. Our instructor shared a lot of period-pieces like newspaper articles, posters, political cartoons that added a lot of background. The second half of the book was added after the first serial publication in a magazine, and is like another story about going off to fight in WWI, and how gruesome it was. This is a revised and improved edition of the 1918 book The Desert of Wheat, incorporating Grey's original hand-written notes on the original manuscript.

Books that add factual background include

Frank Little and the IWW: The Blood That Stained an American Family,

Rebel Voices: An IWW Anthology,

Counting Sheep: From Open Range to Agribusiness on the Columbia Plateau, Wheat Country Railroad: The Northern Pacific's Spokane & Palouse and Competitors,

Beyond the Rebel Girl: Women and the Industrial Workers of the World in the Pacific Northwest, 1905-1924,

Tell Them Willie Boy is Here

[Edward · Rating 3 out of 5]

Zane Grey was a very popular writer of 100 years ago with his rousing novels of the old West. This novel, though, is atypical as it is set in contemporary (1917) eastern Washington and the wheat farms of that area . It intertwines ranch life with the larger concerns of World War I that involved labor unrest and opposition to the war. I was particularly interested as I grew up in that area and wanted to see what Grey did with its history.

Grey creates an engrossing story, first describing the high plains formed by the great bend of the Columbia River, a region ideal for growing wheat. On these plains he describes two ranches, one owned by a German immigrant father and his son, who are struggling with mortgage payments, and the other owned by a wealthy rancher who holds the mortgages. The wealthy rancher is tolerant and has no intention to foreclose, but the father is suspicious. He is irrationally pro-German and opposed to the U.S. efforts to win the war. His patriotic son, Kurt, appalled by his father’s behavior, cooperates with the rancher. The rancher’s attractive daughter and Kurt are drawn to each other, adding to their relationship.

Wheat ranchers always have the weather to contend with, needing rain and sunshine at the right time, but a much bigger threat is posed by the “Wobblies”, the International Workers of the World, depicted by Grey as an anarchist threat, violently opposed to the war and financially backed by Germany. It questioned the legitimacy of the American entry into the war. The Wobblies were a group especially strong in the Pacific Northwest, both in the forest and agricultural industries who fought for improved worker conditions. In this novel, they invade the wheat country, set fire to crops, burn down grain warehouses. Historically, they had legitimate concerns, but for Grey there is nothing good to be said for them.

Much of the novel is taken up with the battles with the Wobblies.. They are eventually defeated, and the latter part of the novel turns melodramatically toward Kurt’s personal dilemma. As a vital food producer in the war effort he can be deferred from military service, but he is so full of hatred for Germans (repeatedly called savages and Huns) that he enlists, despite his beloved Lenore’s pleas to stay home. It is a point of honor for him to fight.

He ends up on the western front, fights ferociously, savagely bayoneting several Huns, and is wounded, apparently fatally. Suspense from here on – will he survive or not?

Grey strains to give the novel significance, trying mightily to make Lenore, a symbol of a new type of woman who is fruitful, like the land, a lover of peace, and a transcendent spiritual force. Kurt has a hard time accepting this attitude, having lived through pain, horror, violence, and he seems to represent an evolutionary force which is still rooted in the physical world . But the two are in love and will, it is suggested, learn to live together. The novel tends to be predictably melodramatic, often given to cliches, but it’s very effective in its linkage of the war and its effect upon one region.

[Violet · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tho in pocket book form, this is an old book. Can you imagine a wheat combine being pulled by 32 horses ? That must have been an awesome sight. It's a great story of a young man growing up on a large wheat farm in the northwest, near Oregon; fighting roughneck union-types in an effort to save his crop, only to lose it anyway; his time fighting in the trenches in Europe and his return to pick up his life again. Mr. Grey does pages of just description in his books and I must admit to skipping quite a bit of it. Nevertheless, he tells a great story.

[Jared · Rating 4 out of 5]

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a German in America and Canada during World War 1? If you have then The Desert Of Wheat is a good book to read. It is about a young man, Kurt Dorn, and his experiences in his fight for his land, wheat, family, and country. The book takes place in the Columbia basin in northwestern United States and British Columbia, Canada. Kurt's father is a true German and won't realize that the I.W.W. is against them and not with them. The I.W.W. is a group that is against the American government and will do anything to keep people from working. They work for Germany and will pay anything to get people on their side. Kurt and his father are in debt to a rich but fair landowner named Anderson. His daughter Lenore is very beautiful and Kurt loves her. Kurt's wheat is really good and if they can harvest it without the I.W.W. burning it, he will be able to pay off his debts. Kurt enlists the help of all the farmers around to harvest his wheat because theirs has either burned or is worth nothing. They work hard and get it all in, but Kurt's father dies from overwork. Also the I.W.W. burns the elevator that his wheat was in and destroyed it all. Kurt is sad and angry, but makes it through his hardships. Since he doesn't have anything he goes to Anderson to pay off his debts by giving him his farm. He plans on enlisting in the war after he is done. During Kurt's time at Anderson's place his relationship with Lenore grows. Anderson and Lenore try to persuade him to stay but he decides to leave. Anderson even offers Kurt the chance to manage his farm. When Kurt decided to go to war Lenore and Anderson supported him but didn't want him to go. Lenore loves him so much she decides to marry him when he gets back no matter what condition he is in. I thought there was a little too much describing of the scenery but other than that I liked it. To see if she marries him and if he makes it back from the war to manage Anderson's farm you will have to read this good book by Zane Grey.

[D. E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Zane Grey Western/Wheat/German Spies/World War I

ZG has penned an almost modern western about the wheat fields of the Central Plains of North America. World War I had just been declared and spies are attempting to ruin the wheat fields by starting unions that will not harvest the crops on time. This period 1920's is the beginning of the Dust Bowl era. This is an excellent read for the genre.....DEHS

[bex · Rating 4 out of 5]

I felt like this book fit well with the Mary Roberts Rinehart books I'd read in the week or two earlier. It is a different perspective on the war and the war time issues. This focuses on the western state experiences instead of the east coast.

[Lisa McLario · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good, nostalgic read.

I enjoyed the glimpse into the mindset and motivations of the people of that time. The history of America's wheat farming and it's connection to the war effort during WWI is a great parallel for telling the story. Inspiring and patriotic!