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Owen Wister

Author profile

born

July 14, 1860 in Germantown, outside Philadelphia, , The United States

died

July 21, 1938

gender

male

website

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owen_Wister

genre

Mystery & Thrillers

influences

Westerns

About this author

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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...more 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.(less)

combine editions
Books by Owen Wister

Average rating: 3.81 · 1,778 ratings · 301 reviews · 45 distinct works

	The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains by Owen Wister, Gary Scharnhorst (Introduction) 3.82 avg rating — 1,735 ratings — published 1902 — 97 editions	My rating:
	The Virginian and Other Westerns by Owen Wister 4.00 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2010 — 2 editions	My rating:
	Owen Wister Out West: His Journals And Letters 4.00 avg rating — 4 ratings	My rating:
	Lady Baltimore 3.20 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1906 — 22 editions	My rating:
	Lin McLean 3.75 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1898 — 25 editions	My rating:
	The Dragon Of Wantley, His Rise, His Voracity And His Downfall: A Romance (1892) 3.20 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2008 — 22 editions	My rating:
	Red Men and White by Owen Wister, Frederic Remington 3.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 1895 — 14 editions	My rating:
	How Doth the Simple Spelling Bee by Owen Wister, F.R. Gruger (Illustrator) 4.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2007	My rating:
	Philosophy 4 by Owen Wister, http://www. flickr. com/photos/j_gresham/252592080 j.gresham (Contribution by) 2.80 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 1903 — 11 editions	My rating:
	When West Was West 3.00 avg rating — 2 ratings — published 2004	My rating:

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Quotes by Owen Wister

“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

11 people liked it

“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

5 people liked it

“When a man is kind to dumb animals, I always say he has got some good in him.”
― Owen Wister, The Virginian a Horseman of the Plains

3 people liked it

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