The Virginian

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.

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.