Betty Zane

Betty Zane is a historical novel by the American writer Zane Grey, published in 1903.

The book takes its subject from the author's own family. Elizabeth Zane was born in 1765, the daughter of William Andrew Zane, and grew up in a family that moved west ahead of most of its neighbours: three of her brothers, Ebenezer, Silas and Jonathan, left Virginia in 1769 and founded the first settlement at what became Wheeling, and the rest of the family followed them there. In 1782 the small garrison was attacked by Native American and Loyalist forces, and the frontier war of the American Revolution forms the background of the novel. Grey tells the story of the family and of the youngest daughter's part in it, and his interest is in the settlement itself as much as in any single adventure.

Grey went on to write many novels about the American West, and this first book drew on the history of his own ancestors. The frontier it describes is the one the author heard about at home, and the family rather than the fighting is the thing the novel is built around.