Owen Wister

Owen Wister
Owen Wister, author of the Western novel The Virginian, and friend of Theodore Roosevelt
Born	Owen Wister July 14, 1860(1860-07-14) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Died	July 21, 1938(1938-07-21) (aged 78) Saunderstown, Rhode Island
Occupation	Author; Attorney
Spouse	Mary "Molly" Channing Wister (married 1898-1913, her death)
Children	Six children

Owen Wister (July 14, 1860 – July 21, 1938) was an American writer and "father" of western fiction.

Biography

Early life

Owen Wister was born on July 14, 1860,^[1] in Germantown, a well-known neighborhood in the northwestern part of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.^[2] His father, Owen Jones Wister, was a wealthy physician, one of a long line of Wisters raised at the storied Belfield estate in Germantown.^[3] He was a distant cousin of Sally Wister. His mother, Sarah Butler Wister, was the daughter of Fanny Kemble, a British actress, and Pierce (Mease) Butler.^[4]

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, a member of Hasty Pudding Theatricals, 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

He began his literary work in 1891.^[5] 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.^[6] The book is dedicated to Theodore Roosevelt.

He was a member of several literary societies and was a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University.^[5]

Personal life

In 1898, Wister married Mary Channing, his cousin.^[7] The couple had six children. Wister's wife died during childbirth in 1913.^[8]

Grave of Owen Wister, Laurel Hill Cemetery

Wister died at his home in Saunderstown, Rhode Island. He is buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia.

Legacy

Since 1978, University of Wyoming Student Publications has released the annual literary and arts magazine Owen Wister Review. The magazine was published bi-annually until 1996. It became an annual publication in the spring of 1997.

Just within the western boundary of the Grand Teton National Park, there is a 11,490-foot mountain named Mount Wister named for Owen Wister.^[9]

Near a home that he had built near La Mesa, California, but was never able to live in because of the death of his wife, is a street called "Wister Drive." In the same neighborhood are found "Virginian Lane" and "Molly Woods Avenue."^[10][11]

Bibliography

Wikisource has original works written by or about: Owen Wister

Novels

• The New Swiss Family Robinson: A Tale for Children of All Ages (1882)
• The Dragon of Wantley: His Tale (1892)
• Lin McLean (1897)
• The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains (novel) (1902)
• Philosophy 4: A Story of Harvard University (1903)
• A Journey in Search of Christmas (1904)
• Lady Baltimore (1906)
• Padre Ignacio: or, the Song of Temptation (1911)
• Romney: And Other New Works about Philadelphia (written 1912-1915; published incomplete 2001)

Non-Fiction

• Ulysses S. Grant (Wister biography) (1901)
• Oliver Wendell Holmes, in the “American Men of Letters Series” (1902)
• The Bison, Musk-Ox, Sheep, and Goat Family, with G. B. Grinnell and Caspar Whitney in the “American Sportsman's Library” (1903)
• Benjamin Franklin, in the “English Men of Letters Series” (1904)
• The Seven Ages of Washington: A Biography (1907)
• The Pentecost of Calamity (1915)
• The Aftermath of Battle: With the Red Cross in France (1916) (preface to Edward D. Toland's autobiography)
• A Straight Deal: or the Ancient Grudge (1920)
• Neighbors Henceforth (1922)
• A Monograph of the Work of Mellor, Meigs, & Howe (1923) (contributor)
• Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship, 1880-1919 (1930)
• The Philadelphia Club, 1834-1934 (1934)
• The Illustrations of Frederic Remington (1970) (commentary)

Story collections

• Red Men and White (1895) (aka Salvation Gap and Other Western Classics)
• The Jimmyjohn Boss and Other Stories (1900)
• Members of the Family (1911) (Illus. H. T. Dunn)
• Safe in the Arms of Croesus (1927)
• When West Was West (1928)
• The West of Owen Wister: Selected Short Stories (1972)

Short Stories

Essays

• Where Charity Begins (1895)
• The Evolution of the Cow-Puncher (1895)
• Concerning “Bad Men” The True “Bad Man” of the Frontier, and the Reasons for His Existence (1901)
• Theodore Roosevelt, Harvard '80 (1901)
• The Open Air Education (1902)
• After Four Years (1905)
• High Speed English and American Railroad Flyers (1906)
• The Keystone Crime: Pennsylvania's Graft-Cankered Capitol (1907)
• According to a Passenger (1919)
• How One Bomb Was Made (1921)
• Roosevelt and the 1912 Disaster: A Friend Remembers - and Interprets (1930)
• Roosevelt and the War: A Chapter of Memories (1930)
• John Jay Chapman (Wister essay) (1934)
• In Homage to Mark Twain (1935)
• Old Yellowstone Days (1936)

Poetry

• "The Pale Cast of Thought" (1890)
• "From Beyond the Sea" (1890)
• "Autumn on Wind River" (1897)
• "In Memoriam" (1902)
• Done In The Open (1902) (Illus. by Frederic Remington)
• "Serenade" (1910)
• Indispensable Information for Infants: Or Easy Entrance to Education (1921)

Operas

• Dido and Aeneas (1892)
• Kenilworth (unpublished)
• Listen to Binks (unpublished)
• Montezuma (unpublished)
• Villon (unpublished)
• Watch Your Thirst: A Dry Opera in Three Acts (1923)

Plays

• The Dragon of Wantley (unpublished)
• The Honeymoonshiners (published in the story collection Safe in the Arms of Croesus)
• Lin McLean (unpublished)
• Slaves of the Ring (unpublished)
• That Brings Luck (unpublished)
• The Virginian (unpublished)

Films & TV Series Inspired by The Virginian

• The Virginian (1914 film) directed by Cecil B. DeMille, with Dustin Farnum
• The Virginian (1923 film) with Kenneth Harlan and Florence Vidor
• The Virginian (1929 film) with Gary Cooper and Walter Huston
• The Virginian (1946 film) with Joel McCrea and Brian Donlevy
• The Virginian (2000 TV movie) with Bill Pullman, Diane Lane, John Savage, Colm Feore, and Dennis Weaver.
• The Virginian (1962–1971 TV series) with James Drury and Doug McClure

References

Bibliography

• Cobbs, J. L. Owen Wister. Boston: Twayne, 1984.
• Payne, D. Owen Wister: Chronickler of the West, Gentelman of the East. Dallas: Southern Methodist University Press, 1985.

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Owen Wister

Biography portal

• Article in Pittsburgh Post-Gazette on Wister
• Books and Writers: Owen Wister
• Works by Owen Wister at Project Gutenberg
• History of Owen Wister & Medicine Bow, Wyoming
• Owen Wister Review
• Romney, Penn State Press, 2001 Sample chapter available
• La Salle University Local History, Owen Wister and his family at Belfield, now the grounds of La Salle University, Philadelphia, PA
• "Owen Wister" by Richard W. Etulain in the Western Writers Series Digital Editions
• http://www.loc.gov/rr/mss/text/wister.html
• Owen Wister at Find a Grave
• Owen Wister Papers at the University of Wyoming - American Heritage Center