American writer whose stories helped to establish the cowboy as an archetypical, individualist hero. Wister and his
predecessor James Fenimore Cooper (1789-1851) created the basic Western myths and themes, which were later
popularized by such writers as Zane Grey and Max Brand. But before Wister, Theodore Roosevelt published his book
The Winning of the West (1889-1896) to make clear the meaning of the land beyond the Mississippi to the whole
country, and Mark Twain and Bret Harte wrote their stories about frontiersmen. In art, Frederik Remington, born and
raised in the East, and Charles M. Russell, who worked as a cowboy, contributed to the image of cowboy life. Although
Westerns are normally set in the 19th-century, they are not considered simply historical novel, but special kind of moral
tales, in which the protagonist, usually male, must defend his personal values of life in a violent confrontation with
socially destructive forces.
"He was evidently howling the remarkable strain of yells that the cow-punchers invented as the
speech best understood by cows - "Oi-ee, yah, whoop-yah-ye-ee, oooo-oop, oop, oop-oop-oop-oopyah-hee!" But that gives you no idea of it. Alphabets are worse than photographs. It is not the lungs
of every man that can produce these effects, not even from armies, eagles, or mules were such
sounds ever heard on earth. The cow-puncher invented them. And when the last cow-puncher is laid
to rest (if that, alas! have not already befallen) the yells will be forever gone." (from Lin McLean,
1898)
Owen Wister was born in Germantown, outside Philadelphia, as the son of Owen Jones Wister, a physician, and Sarah
(Butler) Wister, daughter of the actress Fanny Kemble. His parents were interested in arts, Wister's mother played piano,
and the family frequently traveled abroad. Wister attended briefly schools in Switzerland and England, and studied at St.
Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire and Harvard University.
After graduating in 1882, Wister studied two years music in Paris but then gave up a musical career, and settled in New
York, where he worked as a bank clerk. Due to poor health, Wister spent some time in the West to restore his physical
well-being. In 1885 he entered Harvard Law School, graduating in 1888. Before devoting himself to a writing, Wister
had an office in the Philadelphia law firm of Francis Rawle, but he had no real desire to be a lawyer.
"When ya' call me that, smile!"
Wister had spent summers in the West, and on the basis of these experiences he started to produce Western sketches.
The first story, 'Hank's Woman,' appeared in Harper's, and launched his career as a writer. Beginning with his first
encounter with Wyoming in 1854, he kept journals and notes, which were published in an edited form in WISTER OUT
WEST (1958).
In 1891, after a conversation in which the author and Roosevelt discussed the literary potential of his impressions of
western life, Wister began writing his stories of America's last internal frontier. These preriminary works eventually led
to the novel THE VIRGINIAN: A HORSEMAN OF THE PLAINS (1902), a story about the conflict between
wilderness and civilization and the passing of the traditional way of life. Wister, who later characterized his best-selling
book as an "expression of American faith", dedicated it originally to Theodore Roosevelt: "Some of these pages you
have seen, some you have praised, one stands new-written because you blamed it; and all, my dear critic, beg leave to
remind you of their author's changeless admiration."
The story of a modest, quit hero, who is more comfortable with his horse than with other people, gained a huge
popularity. In The Virginian Wister created the image of the West that was heroic as well exotic. However, for a modern
reader the work can be a disappointment: "The 1902 novel, ancestor of the classic western, turned out to be not only
corny and flag-waving but also intolerant and reactionary by today's standards. The story includes sentimental lectures
on Americanism that sound like a jingoist speech by Theodore Roosevelt, to whom the book is dedicated." (Herbert
Mitgang in The New York Times, December 2, 1989)
Virginian is set in the Wyoming territory during the late 1870s and 1880s. Courageous but mysterious cowboy known
only as the 'Virginian' works as a foreman of a Wyoming cattle ranch. He meets a pretty schoolteacher Molly Wood
from Vermont. She introduces him the works of Sir Walter Scott, Shakespeare, and Keats. The Virginian is forced to
preside over the hanging of his best friend Steve, who has been accused and convicted of cattle rustling. Molly is
horrified and Judge Henry, the Virginian's employer, explains her the code of the West. However, their marriage is
threatened by Trampas, who also works on the farm. He vows to gun down the Virginian, whose honor in now at stake.
"It is only the great mediocry that goes to law in these personal matters," Wister wrote. The climatic gun duel between
the two men is probably the first "showdown" in fiction. Trampas fires first but misses and the Virginian kills him in
self-defense. In the end the hero proves himself capable of taking his place in the community - he marries Molly and
rides with her in the mountains. - The Virginian has been filmed several times, but the television series from 1962 to
1969 had little to do with the original dynamics of the story. Trampas (Doug McClure) appears in the series as an
impulsive and vigorous cowboy, not a villain. The film adaptation from 1929 included the first famous exchange of
Talkies: Huston (the villain): "You long-legged-sonova -". Cooper: "If you wanna call me that, smile." Huston: "With a
gun in my belly, I always smile." Although the legendary American Western director, John Ford, knew Wister's work,
he chose to film LIN MCLEAN (1898), the author's first novel about a young cow-puncher, retitled as A Woman's Fool
(1918).
In 1898 Wister married his cousin, Mary Channing; they had six children. Molly, as she was called by her family and
friends, was socially active, member of the Philadelphia Board of Education, a founder of the Civic Club of
Philadelphia, and defender of women's rights. She died in 1913, after giving birth to her sixth child. Her death was a
deep blow to Wister and his novel, ROMNEY, which he had started in 1912, was left unfinished.
Wister's literary success did not inspire him to write more Western novels, although in his short prose Wister developed
the genre of cowboy fiction. Several of his stories were illustrated by Frederick Remington. In 1904 appeared
PHILOSOPHY 4, a story about college life at Harvard. It was followed by LADY BALTIMORE (1906), about
aristocratic Southerners in Charleston. It has been said that the novel made a hit of the white layered cake described in it.
Wister's later major works include ROOSEVELT: THE STORY OF A FRIENDSHIP, 1880-1919 (1930), based on the
author's long acquaintance with Roosevelt, a Harvard classmate. Besides novels and histories Wister wrote books for
children. Wister's collected writings were published in 11 volumes in 1928. He died in Kingston, Rhode Island on July
21, 1938.
Liukkonen, Petri. “Owen Wister.” Books and Writers. http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/owister.htm. (18. Sept.
2005)
Complete Works of Owen Wister
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Wister, Owen. A Journey in Search of Christmas. New York, London: Harper & Brothers, 1904
Wister, Owen. A Straight Deal; or, an Ancient Grudge. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1920
Wister, Owen. How Doth the Simple Spelling Bee. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1907
Wister, Owen. Introduction to Done in the Open: Drawings by Frederic Remington, by Frederic
Remington. New York: R.H. Russell, 1902
Wister, Owen. Commentary in The Illustrations of Frederic Remington, by Frederic Remington.
New York: Bounty Books, 1970
Wister, Owen. The Jimmyjohn Boss and Other Stories [Electronic Resource]. Champaign, Ill.:
Project Gutenberg; Boulder, Co.: NetLibrary, 199-?
Wister, Owen. Lady Baltimore. New York, London: The Macmillan Company, 1906
Wister, Owen. Lin McLean. New York: A.L. Burt Co., 1907
Wister, Owen. Members of the Family. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1911
Wister, Owen. Mother. [Electronic Resource]. Champaign, Ill.: Project Gutenberg; Boulder, Co.:
NetLibrary, 199-?
Wister, Owen. Neighbors Henceforth. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1922
Wister, Owen. Owen Wister Out West: His Journals & Letters. Chicago: University of Chicago
Press, 1958 Edited By Fanny Kemble Wister
Wister, Owen. Owen Wister’s West: Selected Articles. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico
Press, 1987 Edited By Robert Murray Davis
Wister, Owen. Padre Ignacio; or, The Song of Temptation. New York, London: Harper & Brothers,
1911
Wister, Owen. The Pentecost of Calamity. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1915
Wister, Owen. Philosophy 4: A Story of Harvard University. New York, London: The Macmillan
Company, 1903
Wister, Owen. Red Men and White. New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1895
Wister. Owen. Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1930
Wister, Owen. The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains. New York: The Macmillan Company,
1904
Wister, Owen. When the West was West. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1928
Stokes, Fanny Kemble. My Father, Owen Wister: and Ten Letters Written by Owen Wister to his
Mother During his First Trip to Wyoming in the Summer of 1885. Laramie, Wy.: ?, 1952
Vorpahl, Ben Merchant. My Dear Wister: The Frederic Remington – Owen Wister Letters. Palo
Alto, Calif.: American West Pub. Co., 1972
Marlboro College – Rice Aron Library
978.02 W58E
1989
The Eastern establishment and the western experience : the West of Frederic Remington, Theodore Roosevelt, and
Owen Wister / by G. Edward White ; [with a new preface by the author] 1st University of Texas Press pbk. ed.
White, G. Edward.
18.4 T96Fa
1935
The family Mark Twain
Twain, Mark, 1835-1910.
816.54 W81
1958
Owen Wister out west: his journals and letters. Edited by Fanny Kemble Wister
Wister, Owen, 1860-1938.
UMASS – Amherst Library Collection
The role of the mythic West in some representative examples J. Bakker
c1991
Owen Wister by John L. Cobbs
c1984
The Wister trace : classic novels of the American frontier Loren D. Estleman
Reading "The Virginian" in the new West edited by Melody Graulich and Stephen
Tatum.
The West of Owen Wister; selected short stories. Introd. by Robert L. Hough
c1987
c2003
My dear Wister: the Frederic Remington-Owen Wister letters. By Ben Merchant Vorpahl.
With a foreword by Wallace Stegner
Owen Wister, chronicler of the West, gentleman of the East by Darwin Payne
Owen Wister out west: his journals and letters. Edited by Fanny Kemble Wister
My father, Owen Wister and ten letters written by Owen Wiste [microform] :
1972
Roosevelt, the story of a friendship, 1880-1919
1930
1972
1985
1958
1952
Dartmouth College Library
Owen Wister / by John L. Cobbs : Cobbs, John L.
The Eastern establishment and the Western experience; the West of Frederic Remington,
Theodore Roose : White, G. Edward.
Done in the open; drawings : Remington, Frederic,
c1984
1968
1902
Reading The Virginian in the new West / edited by Melody Graulich and Stephen Tatum.
Bottom of Form
Animal heroes of the great war, by Ernest Harold Baynes; with an account of the writer "The man
and : Baynes, Ernest Harold,
Cultural secrets as narrative form : storytelling in nineteenth-century America / Margaret Reid. :
Reid, Margaret
My dear Wister: the Frederic Remington-Owen Wister letters. By Ben Merchant Vorpahl. With a
foreword : Vorpahl, Ben Merchant.
Owen Wister. : Etulain, Richard W.
1925
c2004
1972
c1973
UVM – University of Vermont Library
Cultural secrets as narrative form : storytelling in
nineteenth-century America / Margaret Reid.
Reading "The Virginian" in the new West / edited by
Melody Graulich and Stephen Tatum.
100 years of cowboy stories / edited by Ted Stone.
Owen Wister, chronicler of the West, gentleman of the
East / by Darwin Payne.
Owen Wister / by John L. Cobbs.
Diversions of a Westerner : with emphasis upon Owen
Wister and Frederic Remington, books and libraries / by N.
Orwin Rush.
My dear Wister: the Frederic Remington-Owen Wister
letters / by Ben Merchant Vorpahl; with a foreword by
Wallace Stegner.
Eastern establishment and the Western experience; the
West of Frederic Remington, Theodore Roosevelt, and
Owen Wister [by] G. Edward White.
2004-
Reid, Margaret
(Margaret K.)
200319941985-
Payne, Darwin.
19841979-
Cobbs, John L.
Rush, Nixon Orwin,
1907-
1972-
Vorpahl, Ben
Merchant.
1968-
White, G. Edward.
JSTOR – Journal Storage
www.jstor.org
Title:
Theodore Roosevelt as Cowboy: The Virginian as Jacksonian
Man
Author(s):
John A. Barsness
Source:
American Quarterly, Vol. 21, No. 3. (Autumn, 1969), pp.
609-619.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00030678%28196923%2921%3A3%3C609%3ATRACTV%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H
Title:
Stephen Crane and the Strenuous Life
Author(s):
Edwin Harrison Cady
Source:
ELH, Vol. 28, No. 4. (Dec., 1961), pp. 376-382.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00138304%28196112%2928%3A4%3C376%3ASCATSL%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E
Title:
Author(s):
Source:
Ten-Gallon Hero
David B. Davis
American Quarterly, Vol. 6, No. 2. (Summer, 1954), pp.
111-125.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00030678%28195422%296%3A2%3C111%3ATH%3E2.0.CO%3B2-W
Title:
Theodore Roosevelt and the Divided Character of American
Nationalism
Author(s):
Gary Gerstle
Source:
The Journal of American History, Vol. 86, No. 3, The
Nation and Beyond: Transnational Perspectives on United
States History: A Special Issue. (Dec., 1999), pp.
1280-1307.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00218723%28199912%2986%3A3%3C1280%3ATRATDC%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E
Title:
Romancing the Empire: The Embodiment of American
Masculinity in the Popular Historical Novel of the
1890s
Author(s):
Amy Kaplan
Source:
American Literary History, Vol. 2, No. 4. (Winter, 1990),
pp. 659-690.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=08967148%28199024%292%3A4%3C659%3ARTETEO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A
Title:
Wister's Typology
Author(s):
Michael Kreyling; Lee Clark Mitchell
Source:
PMLA, Vol. 102, No. 5. (Oct., 1987), pp. 841-842.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00308129%28198710%29102%3A5%3C841%3AWT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A
Title:
The Cowboy Businessman and "The Course of
Empire": Owen Wister's "The Virginian"
Author(s):
Jane Kuenz
Source:
Cultural Critique, No. 48. (Spring, 2001), pp. 98-128.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=08824371%28200121%290%3A48%3C98%3ATCBA%22C%3E2.0.CO%3B2-D
Title:
Author(s):
Source:
The Etymology of 'Buckaroo'
Julian Mason
American Speech, Vol. 35, No. 1. (Feb., 1960), pp.
51-55.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00031283%28196002%2935%3A1%3C51%3ATEO%27%3E2.0.CO%3B2-O
Title:
"When You Call Me That... ": Tall Talk and Male
Hegemony in the Virginian
Author(s):
Lee Clark Mitchell
Source:
PMLA, Vol. 102, No. 1. (Jan., 1987), pp. 66-77.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00308129%28198701%29102%3A1%3C66%3A%22YCMT%22%3E2.0.CO%3B2-E
Title:
When East Meets West: Rethinking the Domestic Heroine AND
the Western in Dorothy Scarborough's "The
Wind"
Author(s):
John C. Orr
Source:
Pacific Coast Philology, Vol. 31, No. 1. (1996), pp.
107-119.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00787469%281996%2931%3A1%3C107%3AWEMWRT%3E2.0.CO%3B2-A
Title:
Author(s):
Source:
President Theodore Roosevelt and the Negro, 1901-1908
Seth M. Scheiner
The Journal of Negro History, Vol. 47, No. 3. (Jul.,
1962), pp. 169-182.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00222992%28196207%2947%3A3%3C169%3APTRATN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-6
Title:
Captives, Captains, Cowboys, Indians: Frames of Reference
and the American West
Author(s):
John Seelye
Source:
American Literary History, Vol. 7, No. 2. (Summer, 1995),
pp. 304-319.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=08967148%28199522%297%3A2%3C304%3ACCCIFO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G
Title:
The Female World of Love and Ritual: Relations between
Women in Nineteenth-Century America
Author(s):
Carroll Smith-Rosenberg
Source:
Signs, Vol. 1, No. 1. (Autumn, 1975), pp. 1-29.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00979740%28197523%291%3A1%3C1%3ATFWOLA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H
Title:
Author(s):
Source:
Nationality During the Interregnum (1892-1912)
Benjamin T. Spencer
American Literature, Vol. 32, No. 4. (Jan., 1961), pp.
434-445.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00029831%28196101%2932%3A4%3C434%3ANDTI%28%3E2.0.CO%3B2-G
Title:
Author(s):
Source:
Literature Out-of-Doors
Stephen Tatum
American Literary History, Vol. 5, No. 2. (Summer, 1993),
pp. 294-313.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=08967148%28199322%295%3A2%3C294%3ALO%3E2.0.CO%3B2-S
Title:
Author(s):
Source:
Wister, Roosevelt and James: A Note on the Western
Don D. Walker
American Quarterly, Vol. 12, No. 3. (Autumn, 1960), pp.
358-366.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00030678%28196023%2912%3A3%3C358%3AWRAJAN%3E2.0.CO%3B2-H
Title:
Author(s):
Source:
The Nervous Origins of the American Western
Barbara Will
American Literature, Vol. 70, No. 2. (Jun., 1998), pp.
293-316.
Stable URL:
http://links.jstor.org/sici?sici=00029831%28199806%2970%3A2%3C293%3ATNOOTA%3E2.0.CO%3B2-Z
InfoTrac Articles:
American and Argentine literary traditions in the writing of Borges' "El Sur". (Jorge Luis Borges) Ariel de la
Fuente.
Variaciones Borges Jan 2005 v19 p41(52)
Shakespeare and the cowboy: Prince Hal as the model for Owen Wister's Virginian. James T. Bratcher.
Journal of the West Spring 2004 v43 i2 p72(6)
Owen Wister: from history to myth. Louis Tanner.
Journal of the West April 1998 v37 n2 p61(9)
Em'ly in the 'Cuckoo's Nest.' Sonya Yvette Alvarado.
The Midwest Quarterly Summer 1997 v38 n4 p351(12)
Great Stories of the American West II. (Brief Article)
Publishers Weekly Jan 8, 1996 v243 n2 p60(1) Mag.Coll.: 82E4062. Bus.Coll.: 91U1832.
Owen Wister: chronicler of the West, gentleman of the East. Edwin R. Bingham.
Journal of American History March 1987 v73 p1059(2)
Owen Wister: creator of the cowboy myth; a critical essay. Wallace Stenger.
American West Jan-Feb 1984 v21 p48(5) Mag.Coll.: 22D6312.
Roosevelt the Reformer: Theodore Roosevelt as Civil Service Commissioner, 1889-1895.
(Book Review) Alan Lessoff.
Presidential Studies Quarterly March 2005 v35 i1 p204(2)