The Virginian is a 1902 debut novel set in the Wild West by the American novelist Owen Wister. Describing the life of a cowboy on a cattle ranch in Wyoming, it helped establish the western novel as a literary genre. The unnamed protagonist in The Virginian, who courts a local schoolteacher and defers personal revenge while meting out justice to a cattle thief, set the tone for the rough but civilized cowboy, a prototype for scores of ensuing books, films, and music that popularized the mythology of the American wild west. The Virginian has been adapted multiple times for film and television.
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Owen Wister (1860-1938) was an American writer whose novel The Virginian (1902) helped establish the western as a literary genre. Born into privilege, Wister graduated from Harvard Law school in 1888 and was a lifelong friend of U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt. After his writings inspired by his Western vacations enjoyed a positive reception in Harper’s, he quit his job as an attorney to write full-time. The unnamed protagonist in The Virginian set the tone for the rough but civilized cowboy, a prototype for scores of ensuing books, films, and music that popularized the mythology of the American wild west.