Owen Wister
 | Owen Wister (July 14, 1860 – July 21, 1938) was an American writer often called the “father of western fiction and best known for his novel The Virginian (1902) and his biography of Ulysses S. Grant (1901). He was born in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia; his father was a wealthy physician and his mother was the daughter of British actress Fanny Kemble. He attended St. Paul’s School and Harvard University, where he was an influential member of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals and of the exclusive Porcellian Club, where he met and became lifelong friends with Theodore Roosevelt. His first foray into writing was a parody of the Swiss Family Robinson entitled The New Swiss Family Robinson, which was well enough received that Mark Twain wrote him a letter of praise. After two year studying music he studied law at Harvard Law School and practiced thereafter in Philadelphia. He made several trips to the West, and, like his friend Roosevelt, developed a fascination with all things Western. After his sixth voyage west he gave up the law to write, mostly fiction about the western frontier. His masterpiece is The Virginian, the first serious novel about the west and the prototype of the fictional cowboy of books, films, and television; it was enormously successful, going through fourteen printings in eight months after release. His legacy includes the University of Wyoming literary magazine, The Owen Wister Review, and Mount Wister, a mountain on the western boundary of the Grand Teton National Park. |
The Virginian
The Virginian, written by Owen Wister and published in 1902, is widely considered to be the first ge..
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