The Perfect Mother's Day Gift 🌸 Tertulia Gift Cards

Tertulia Logo
Sign upLog In
Cart Icon0
Cart Icon0
The co-op bookstore for avid readers
Book Cover for: The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains, Owen Wister

The Virginian: A Horseman of the Plains

Owen Wister

Paperback
Regular price$14.00With free membership trial$7.0050% off your first book+ Free shipping
In Stock– Ships within one business day

Do you recommend this book?

Yes!

No

Dime novels had featured some rather scrawny horse-bound tenders of cattle, but not until 1902 did the cowboy become a fully realized article of American culture. That year Owen Wister, a native of Philadelphia, published the novel that established the conventions of the western. An immediate best seller, it has never faded from public consciousness.

Book Details

  • Publisher: Penguin Classics
  • Publish Date: Aug 1st, 1988
  • Pages: 416
  • Language: English
  • Edition: undefined - undefined
  • Dimensions: 7.74in - 5.11in - 0.79in - 0.64lb
  • EAN: 9780140390650
  • Categories: • Westerns - General• Classics• Literary

About the Author

Owen Wister (1860-1938) was born in Philadelphia and raised in Germantown, Pennsylvania. At age 25, he spent a summer in Wyoming on the advice of his physician. Encouraged by his friend from Harvard, Theodore Roosevelt, he later wrote about his experiences and observations of the American West. His greatest success came in 1902 with the publication of The Virginian, which was a bestseller for months and would be dramatized and filmed numerous times.

John Seelye is a graduate research professor of American literature at the University of Florida. He is the author of The True Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, Mark Twain at the Movies, Prophetic Writers: The River in Early American Literature, Beautiful Machine: Rivers and the Early Republic, Memory's Nation: The Place of Plymouth Rock, and War Games: Richard Harding Davis and the New Imperialism. He is also the consulting editor for Penguin Classics in American literature.

What people are saying

Mentioner image for: Ben Railton
Ben Railton
@AmericanStudier
2 years

Prof of Amer Lit & Studies. Dad to 2 amazing young men. We the People: https://t.co/HSQd0cfKJa; Of Thee I Sing: https://t.co/bSkmCeE703. #ScholarSunday guru. he/him

Going back at least to Owen Wister's bestselling novel The Virginian, a staple of Wild West storytelling has been the laconic hero. From Wister to John Wayne's carefully curated image to Timothy Olyphant's paired characters in Deadwood & Justified, this type has endured.

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: David Lambert
David Lambert
@DavidLambertArt
2 years

I make figure drawings and talk incessantly about minutiae related to the Old West and Western films. https://t.co/2Sw9OBuoef

One of the black eyes of the Western genre is that so much of its tropes & themes originate with Owen Wister's 1902 novel The Virginian, which is a decent read & also a deeply evil apologia for lynching (though it draws the line at lynching a man for his race)... https://t.co/lEI6KXahXX

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: _DavidMorrell
_DavidMorrell
@_DavidMorrell
2 years

David Morrell is an author.

@CyrusNowrasteh Thanks. Cyrus. I love writing about popular cultures and have almost enough essays for another book on topics ranging from M.R. James's ghost stories to Owen Wister's novel THE VIRGINIAN.

twitter.com
Show more

What people are saying

Mentioner image for: Ben Railton
Ben Railton
@AmericanStudier
2 years

Prof of Amer Lit & Studies. Dad to 2 amazing young men. We the People: https://t.co/HSQd0cfKJa; Of Thee I Sing: https://t.co/bSkmCeE703. #ScholarSunday guru. he/him

Going back at least to Owen Wister's bestselling novel The Virginian, a staple of Wild West storytelling has been the laconic hero. From Wister to John Wayne's carefully curated image to Timothy Olyphant's paired characters in Deadwood & Justified, this type has endured.

twitter.com
Mentioner image for: David Lambert
David Lambert
@DavidLambertArt
2 years

I make figure drawings and talk incessantly about minutiae related to the Old West and Western films. https://t.co/2Sw9OBuoef

One of the black eyes of the Western genre is that so much of its tropes & themes originate with Owen Wister's 1902 novel The Virginian, which is a decent read & also a deeply evil apologia for lynching (though it draws the line at lynching a man for his race)... https://t.co/lEI6KXahXX

twitter.com
See more