Researching The Last Days of Zane Grey

Vicki Hastrich
Aug 2
3 min read

Read an article written by Vicki Hastrich on the research behind her book The Last Days of Zane Grey.

The Last Days of Zane Grey by Vicki Hastrich

Zane Grey was the world’s first millionaire author, inventor of the American Western in both literature and films, and with his Hollywood ties, globally feted as a celebrity. He was also a pioneer of the new glamour sport of game fishing. Once, his name was as familiar to people around the world as that of their monarch, president or prime minister. How amazing then, that he has fallen so far from social memory.

When I first stumbled across the untold story of the two trips Grey made to Australia in the 1930s to catch world record swordfish and sharks, I could hardly believe it. It was a tale as entertaining as a Zane Grey western, filled with incident and drama. Great characters, fishing rivalries, affairs, mounting financial pressures, creatures from the deep, Hollywood luxury coming up against Australian dagginess, the filming of the original ‘Jaws’ movie on Hayman Island, and gripping universal themes. On the small scale and the large, narrative abounded everywhere I looked.

Researching the book became an adventure for me as well. I dived in a shark cage at Port Lincoln, cracked the code of intimate letters between Grey and his secret Australian lover, and travelled to the Everglades and Florida Keys – places I never thought I go.

From prestigious archival holdings such as those of the Beinecke Library at Yale University, down to the humblest institutions like the Port Lincoln library, I cast my net wide for information. But when it came to Grey’s Australian activities, the digitised newspaper collection known as Trove, hosted by the National Library of Australia, was the gift that kept on giving. Because Grey was world famous, and Australians were such massive fans of his books and films, the local press reported on his every utterance and move. For me it was like having a GPS tracker on him. Through the papers, I could follow his daily doings down to the last detail, and those of his entourage, enemies and friends.

To keep control of the mountain of research material I collected, I built a spreadsheet timeline with over 1000 entries – a thing only a nerd like me could love, beautiful in its ugliness, and indispensable. It became a drawer I could pull out, in which bald facts and the precious, colourful details that make a story come alive lay alongside each other, making it easy for me to pick and choose—and discover connections that might otherwise have gone unnoticed. Suddenly, for instance, by following a network of seemingly incidental interactions, Grey’s relationships with important figures like Miles Franklin and Charles Kingsford Smith came into view.

A photograph of Vicki with game fishing historian John McIntyre at the Sydney Game Fishing Club at Watsons Bay. — Vicki with game fishing historian John McIntyre at the Sydney Game Fishing Club at Watsons Bay.

What also became clear, and key to the book, was Grey’s growing obsession with catching a monster-sized great white shark. It was this that called him back to Australia in 1939 for his second visit, to embark on his last great adventure. He wanted to do battle with the ultimate opponent, and in the remote waters off Port Lincoln, he did. It was an epic contest that brought a fitting close to the grand arc of his life.

The Last Days of Zane Grey has been my long obsession, but doing the detective work to resurrect Grey and bring this fascinating slice of Australian history to light has never failed to be engrossing.