The Virginian

This is where the “Western novel” began.

By reading this book, people of the early 20th century were introduced to a prototype protagonist who would be duplicated (with variations) for generations to come. Authors who followed this lead were Zane Grey, Louis L’Amour, Jack Schaefer, Charles Portis, Elmer Kelton, and I.

As a boy I found my heroes in the format of the lone common man who faced up to adversities that cut against his moral code.  These protagonists played a large part in shaping my values. Even though the characters were fictitious, the lessons were real. The inspiration… show more.

Widely recognized as the original prototype for the Western novel, The Virginian remembers what most followers and imitators never knew—the essence of cowboy life is working cattle from a horse’s back. While there is gunplay and violence, which became the focus of most Western novels that followed The Virginian, Owen Wister never lost sight of the reality at the core of cowboy life. 

Theodore Roosevelt loved this book because of his own interest as a historian in telling tales of how the West was won. Wister was a friend of Roosevelt’s from their Harvard days together, and the President actually worked as a friendly, informal editor of the novel, even advising Wister on the final shape of the story. We love this book not only because it is the first evocation of Western cowboy mythology—perhaps the most popular American story—but also because it in many ways replicates Roosevelt’s experience as a Dakota rancher in the mid-1880s, an experience he chronicled. Roosevelt and Wister… show more.