Everything about Owen Wister totally explained
Owen Wister (
July 14,
1860 –
July 21,
1938) was an
American writer of
western fiction.
Biography
Early life
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. 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; they remained lifelong friends. 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. 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 had Theodore Roosevelt's first wife 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.
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's a 11,490-foot mountain named
Mount Wister named for Owen Wister.
Near a home that he'd 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."
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 McClureFurther Information
Get more info on 'Owen Wister'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://owen_wister.totallyexplained.com">Owen Wister Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
