Owen Wister (Author of The Virginian)

Owen Wister鈥檚 Followers (62)

Owen Wister

Born

in Germantown, outside Philadelphia, , The United States

July 14, 1860

Died

July 21, 1938

Website

Genre

Mystery & Thrillers

Influences

Westerns

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Owen Wister was born on July 14, 1860, in Germantown, a neighborhood within the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Owen Jones Wister, was a wealthy physician, one of a long line of Wisters raised at the storied Belfield estate in Germantown. His mother, Sarah Butler Wister, was the daughter of actress Fanny Kemble.
Education
He briefly attended schools in Switzerland and Britain, and later studied at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a classmate of Theodore Roosevelt, an editor of the Harvard Lampoon and a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon (Alpha chapter). Wister graduated from Harvard in 1882.
At first he aspired to a career in music, and spent two years study Owen Wister was born on July 14, 1860, in Germantown, a neighborhood within the City of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Owen Jones Wister, was a wealthy physician, one of a long line of Wisters raised at the storied Belfield estate in Germantown. His mother, Sarah Butler Wister, was the daughter of actress Fanny Kemble.
Education
He briefly attended schools in Switzerland and Britain, and later studied at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a classmate of Theodore Roosevelt, an editor of the Harvard Lampoon and a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon (Alpha chapter). Wister graduated from Harvard in 1882.
At first he aspired to a career in music, and spent two years studying at a Paris conservatory. Thereafter, he worked briefly in a bank in New York before studying law, having graduated from the Harvard Law School in 1888. Following this, he practiced with a Philadelphia firm, but was never truly interested in that career. He was interested in politics, however, and was a staunch Theodore Roosevelt backer. In the 1930s, he opposed Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal.
Writing career
Wister had spent several summers out in the American West, making his first trip to Wyoming in 1885. Like his friend Teddy Roosevelt, Wister was fascinated with the culture, lore and terrain of the region. On an 1893 visit to Yellowstone, Wister met the western artist Frederic Remington; who remained a lifelong friend. When he started writing, he naturally inclined towards fiction set on the western frontier. Wister's most famous work remains the 1902 novel The Virginian, the loosely constructed story of a cowboy who is a natural aristocrat, set against a highly mythologized version of the Johnson County War and taking the side of the large land owners. This is widely regarded as being the first cowboy novel and was reprinted fourteen times in eight months.[5] The book is dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt.
Personal life
In 1898, Wister married Mary Channing, his cousin.The couple had six children.
Wister's wife died during childbirth in 1913, as Theodore Roosevelt's first wife had died giving birth to Roosevelt's first daughter, Alice.
Wister died at his home in Saunderstown, Rhode Island. He is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. ...more

Combine Editions
Owen Wister鈥檚 books

Average rating: 3.88 · 10,622 ratings · 1,238 reviews · 198 distinct works 鈥� Similar authors

	The Virginian 3.91 avg rating — 9,665 ratings — published 1902 — 596 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Lin McLean 3.77 avg rating — 86 ratings — published 1898 — 161 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Virginian and Other Westerns by Owen Wister 3.90 avg rating — 60 ratings — published 2010 — 5 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The Dragon of Wantley 3.52 avg rating — 60 ratings — published 1892 — 92 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Ulysses S. Grant 3.33 avg rating — 42 ratings — published 2010 — 38 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	A Journey in Search of Christmas 3.18 avg rating — 40 ratings — 70 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Red Men and White by Owen Wister, Frederic Remington 3.60 avg rating — 25 ratings — published 1895 — 104 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Classic Westerns by Owen Wister, Willa Cather, Zane Grey 4.14 avg rating — 21 ratings — published 2008 — 4 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	Philosophy 4 3.38 avg rating — 24 ratings — published 1903 — 85 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars
	The New Swiss Family Robinson: A Tale For Children Of All Ages (1922) 3.44 avg rating — 16 ratings — published 2007 — 37 editions	Error rating book. Refresh and try again. Rate this book Clear rating 1 of 5 stars 2 of 5 stars 3 of 5 stars 4 of 5 stars 5 of 5 stars

More books by Owen Wister…

Quotes by Owen Wister (?)

“Forgive my asking you to use your mind. It is a thing which no novelist should expect of his reader...”
― Owen Wister, The Virginian

tags: humorous-quotes, writers-and-writing, writers-on-writing, writers-quotes

745 likes

“When a man ain't got no ideas of his own, he'd ought to be kind o' careful who he borrows 'em from.”
― Owen Wister, The Virginian

49 likes

“It was neither preaching nor praying that made a better man of me, but one or two people who believed in me better than I deserved, and I hated to disappoint them.”
― Owen Wister

22 likes

See all Owen Wister's quotes »

Polls

Which book would you like to read in August?

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea by Jules Verne

16 votes, 44.4%

The Prince by Niccolo Machievelli

8 votes, 22.2%

The Moon and Sixpense and Other Novels: Boxed Set by W. Somerset Maugham

5 votes, 13.9%

Gentleman's Agreement by Laura Z. Hobson

5 votes, 13.9%

The Virginian, A Horseman Of The Plains: By Owen Wister - Illustrated by Owen Wister

2 votes, 5.6%

36 total votes

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