More About Origins

The genius of Ron Scheer's study of the origins of western fiction is that it is organized by attribute. A reader can follow the evolution of western fiction through Scheer's remarkable comparisons of such qualities as women on the frontier, character, racial and ethnic viewpoints, storytelling technique, and attitudes about the West itself.

Anyone who wants to know where the western came from, how it evolved, and when it began its period of virtual standardization as cowboy fiction, will profit from this study. The vectors are all present, as various authors that preceded and followed Owen Wister, and his famed novel, The Virginian, are examined here.