The Virginian

Owen Wister (1860-1938)
The Virginian, A Horseman of the Plains.
New York: MacMillan Co., 1902
Rare Book & Special Collections Division
Gift of Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1948 (180.3)

Writer Owen Wister had been friends with Theodore Roosevelt (1858-1919) since his Harvard University days and later dedicated to Roosevelt his most famous Western story, The Virginian (1902). This seminal novel established many of the conventions of the western. It became a best-seller, was widely translated, gave rise to four motion pictures, and spurred radio and television interest in the western genre. 2002 marks the centennial of the book's publication.