EXHIBITS
Zane Grey's 1922 Rainbow Bridge Trip: The Many Members of Zane Grey's Rainbow Bridge Party
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The Many Members of Zane Grey’s Party
Grey brought several of his friends and family on the 1922 Rainbow Bridge trip. First, he brought his brother Romer C. Grey, who managed the rough ride despite having recently crippled his shoulder in a fall previous to the beginning of the journey. Grey also brought along his fishing partner and friend, Dr. J. Auborn Wiborn along with Wiborn’s wife.[1] Two other women accompanied Grey, including Lillian Wilhelm Robertson, the cousin of Zane Grey’s wife: Lina Roth “Dolly” Grey. Lillian served as the trip’s artist and it was she who created several artworks for Zane Grey’s writings. The other woman was Louise Anderson who, at the time, was Grey’s mistress.[2]
Louise Anderson was a native of Zane Grey’s hometown, Zanesville, Ohio. Her mother was Nelly Davis Anderson, who was likely a girl named “Nelly” that Grey mentions in his autobiography. This Nelly had been Grey’s lover but she had rejected his affections after Grey assaulted her brother for spreading rumors that resulted in Grey’s expulsion from the local dancing club. With the rise of Grey’s fame, Nelly Davis Anderson had encouraged her daughter to get to know Zane Grey while he had been staying at their house during a trip to Zanesville in 1921. Nelly Davis even arranged for her daughter to perform a “dramatic reading of a piece entitled ‘Gold’” Grey fell in love with her, and brought her to live at his residence in California so that she could “study literature under the direction of the noted author, Zane Grey.” Over the course of 1922 Louise Anderson accompanied Grey on several of his trips in the West and she features prominently in the pictures from Grey’s 1922 Rainbow Bridge trip.[3]
