The Spirit of the Border

While Dolly managed Greys career and raised their three children including son Romer Zane Grey over the next two decades Grey often spent months away from the family. He fished wrote and spent time with his many mistresses. While Dolly knew of his behavior she seemed to view it as his handicap rather than a choice. Throughout their life together he highly valued her management of his career and their family and her solid emotional support. In addition to her considerable editorial skills she had good business sense and handled all his contract negotiations with publishers agents and movie studios. All his income was split fifty-fifty with her; from her share she covered all family expenses. Their considerable correspondence shows evidence of his lasting love for her despite his infidelities and personal emotional turmoil. The Greys moved to California in 1918. In 1920 they settled in Altadena California at a home later known as the Zane Grey Estate. In Altadena Grey also spent time with his mistress Brenda Montenegro. The two met while hiking Eaton Canyon. Of her he wrote I saw her flowing raven mane against the rocks of the canyon. I have seen the red skin of the Navajo and the olive of the Spaniards but her ... her skin looked as if her Creator had in that instant molded her just for me. I thought it was an apparition. She seemed to be the embodiment of the West I portray in my books open and wild. Grey summed up his feelings for the city: In Altadena I have found those qualities that make life worth living.