Owen Wister - (1860-1938)
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I. Biography Owen Wister was born in Germantown, Pennsylvania on July 14, 1860. Wister was as fluent in French as he was in English. He spent time in a Swiss boarding school
and briefly in a school in England. However, he received most of his schooling at the Germantown Academy and St. Paul's school in Concord, New Hampshire, which he got into in 1873.
Wister was very intelligent which is obvious since he graduated from Harvard in 1882. At first, Wister wanted a music career, which is why he studied at the Paris Conservatoire
under Ernest Guiraud, shortly after graduation. Due to bad health and a declining interest in music, he moved west near Buffalo. In the fall of 1885, he entered Harvard Law school and graduated in 1888. In 1891, he knew that his career had been determined in becoming a writer. In 1902, he wrote his most famous novel called The Virginian. It was a best seller for six months, and
by 1938, it had sold over a million and a half copies. Wister married his second cousin in 1898. They had three sons and three daughters together. On July 21, 1938, Owen Wister died of a cerebral hemorrhage. II. Best Known Literary Works Red Men and White: This was Wister's first published novel. This story talks about cowboys, Indians and is considered not to be very realistic.
Roosevelt, the story of a Friendship: This novel spoke mainly about the relationship between Owen Wister and his good friend Theodore Roosevelt. The Virginian
: This is a novel about a cowboy who possesses courage, humor, and chivalry. This novel is action packed and is truly a model for other cowboy stories. III. Literary Works Red Men and White (1896) V. Sources Dictionary of American Biography, #22, supplement 2, R92003 This essay was submitted by a student of Cheryl Petersohn, a teacher at Harriton High
School in Rosemont, Pennsylvania.
Lin McLean (1898)
The Virginian (1902)
Philosophy 4 (1903)
Watch Your Thirst (1923)
How Doth the Simple Spelling Bee (1907)
Ulysses S. Grant (1900)
The Seven Ages of Washington (1907)
Roosevelt, the story of a Friendship (1930)