text: Sequel The Rainbow Trail, a sequel to Riders of the Purple Sage that reveals the fate of Jane and Lassiter and their adopted daughter, was published in 1915. Both novels are notable for their protagonists' strong opposition to Mormon polygamy, but in Rainbow Trail this theme is treated more explicitly. Both plots revolve around the victimization of women in the Mormon culture: Riders of the Purple Sage centers on the struggle of a Mormon woman who sacrifices her wealth and social status to avoid becoming a junior wife of the head of the local church, while Rainbow Trail contrasts the fanatical older Mormons with the rising generation of Mormon women who will not tolerate polygamy and Mormon men who do not seek it.
  Adaptations
  Films
  Riders of the Purple Sage has been adapted to film five times.
  Riders of the Purple Sage  (1918), starring William Farnum and Mary Mersch (silent)
  Riders of the Purple Sage (1925), starring Tom Mix and Mabel Ballin (silent)
  Riders of the Purple Sage (1931), starring George O'Brien and Marguerite Churchill (sound)
  Riders of the Purple Sage (1941), starring George Montgomery and Mary Howard
  Riders of the Purple Sage (1996), starring Ed Harris and Amy Madigan (television film)
  Other media
  During World War II the novel was rejected for publication as an Armed Services Editions paperback provided to US servicemen due to perceived bias against Mormonism.
  In 1952, Dell released a comic book version of the novel (Dell # 372).