Owen Wister, Chronicler of the West, Gentleman of the East [Hardcover]

Darwin Payne (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 1985

In what remains the only full-length biography of Owen Wister (1860–1938), Darwin Payne details the life of the man who created the popular image of the cowboy that dominated American culture from the early 1900s to the 1960s. Payne follows Wister from his privileged childhood in Philadelphia, to his undergraduate days at Harvard, to his musical studies in Europe, to his “discovery” of the West, and through his maturation as an individual and a writer. Payne draws on Wister’s own voluminous papers and writings in delineating, for the first time, the real-life incident that prompted Wister to invent the character of “the Virginian,” and in presenting the actual individual whom the famous character most closely resembles. Payne also provides intimate details about Wister’s surprising friendships with such prominent American figures as Theodore Roosevelt, William Dean Howells, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., William James, Frederic Remington, and John Jay Chapman.

(20110302)

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“No previous discussions of Wister have been so probing or revealing as this account of the author’s humanness. . . . [This is] an authoritative life-story of Owen Wister, a central figure in understanding the important role of the West in American culture.”—Richard W. Etulain, Pacific Historical Review

(Richard W. Etulain Pacific Historical Review 20110302)

“An excellent biography of the most complex of American eccentrics, who also invented the Western cowboy novel.”—National Review

(National Review 20110302)

“This is a first-rate biography. . . . Payne has written a sensitive, candid, balanced life of Owen Wister that is likely to remain the standard study of the writer for some time to come.”—Edwin R. Bingham, Journal of American History

(Journal of American History 20110302)

“Darwin Payne is to be congratulated on this fresh, thorough, and fair-minded study of Owen Wister.”—Howard R. Lamar, Journal of the Southwest

(Howard R. Lamar Journal of the Southwest )

"Gracefully written and exhaustively researched."—Choice

(Choice ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

About the Author

Darwin Payne is professor emeritus of communications at Southern Methodist University and the author of several books including Quest for Justice: Louis A. Bedford Jr. and the Struggle for Equal Rights in Texas and Indomitable Sarah: The Life of Judge Sarah T. Hughes.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 377 pages
• Publisher: Southern Methodist University Press (October 1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0870742051
• ISBN-13: 978-0870742057
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,652,489 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The author of THE VIRGINIAN, October 14, 2005

By 

Bomojaz (South Central PA, USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Owen Wister, Chronicler of the West, Gentleman of the East (Hardcover)

Owen Wister was born in Philadelphia into elite society, went to Harvard where he studied music and the law, travelled out West because of ill health, fell in love with Wyoming and began writing short stories with western themes. In 1902 he published THE VIRGINIAN, which was a huge success, selling over a million copies. Although he wrote many other books after that, including fiction, history, and biography, none came even close to the success of THE VIRGINIAN.

Basically he was a reactionary, despising progress, and a blatant racist (LADY BALTIMORE, his second best-know work of fiction, is rife with racist ideas). But he was friends with everyone from Teddy Roosevelt and Henry James to Hemingway. Payne's biography is a good one and will probably become definitive. Wister today is thought of as pretty much a one-shot wonder, associated totally and only with THE VIRGINIAN.