Owen Wister

Owen Wister
Owen Wister, author of the Western novel, The Virginian and friend of Theodore Roosevelt
Born	July 14, 1860(1860-07-14) Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Died	July 21, 1938 (aged 78) Saunderstown, Rhode Island
Occupation	Author; Attorney
Spouse(s)	Mary "Molly" Channing Wister (married 1898-1913, her death)
Children	Six children
Notes (1) Though trained as a lawyer, Wister preferred writing and traveling through the American West. (2) In his later years, Wister was an opponent of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the New Deal, but he was personally and politically close to FDR's distant cousin, Theodore Roosevelt. (3) As with Theodore Roosevelt's first wife, Wister's wife too died in childbirth. (4) As with Margaret Mitchell in Gone With the Wind, Wister could not thereafter match his great work The Virginian.

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 neighborhood within the City 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] His mother, Sarah Butler Wister, was the daughter of actress Fanny Kemble.^[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, 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.^[6] 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.^[7]

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

Legacy

Grave of Owen Wister, Laurel Hill Cemetery

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.^[8]

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."^[9][10]

Bibliography

Books and stories:

• Hank's Woman
• The Virginian
• Lady Baltimore
• Roosevelt: The Story of a Friendship
• Romney
• Old Yellowstone Days
• Lin MacLean
• Neighbors Henceforth
• The Pentecost of Calamity

Poetry:

• Done In The Open

Films 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.

Television Shows Inspired by The Virginian:

• The Virginian (1962 - 1971 TV Series) with James Drury and Doug McClure

References

External links

• 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. Eutlain in the Western Writers Series Digital Editions