Owen Wister and the West: Volume 30

Owen Wister and the West: Volume 30 - Paperback

$39.10
Skip to product information
Owen Wister and the West: Volume 30

Owen Wister and the West: Volume 30 - Paperback

$39.10
Shipping calculated at checkout.

by Gary Scharnhorst (Author)

Westerns are rarely only about the West. From the works of James Fenimore Cooper to Gary Cooper, stories set in the American West have served as vehicles for topical commentary. More than any other pioneer of the genre, Owen Wister turned the Western into a form of social and political critique, touching on such issues as race, the environment, women's rights, and immigration. In Owen Wister and the West, a biographical-literary account of Wister's life and writings, Gary Scharnhorst shows how the West shaped Wister's career and ideas, even as he lived and worked in the East.

The Virginian, Wister's claim to literary fame, was published in 1902, but his writing career actually began in 1891 and continued for twenty-five years after the publication of his masterpiece. Scharnhorst traces Wister's western connections up to and through the publication of The Virginian and shows that the author remained deeply connected to the American West until his death in 1938. Like his Harvard friend Theodore Roosevelt, Wister was the sickly scion of an eastern family who recuperated in the West before returning to his home and inherited social position. His life story is punctuated with appearances by such contemporaries as Frederic Remington, Rudyard Kipling, and Ernest Hemingway.

Scharnhorst thoroughly discusses Wister's experiences in the West, including a detailed chronology of his travels and the writings that grew out of them. He offers numerous insights into Wister's adroit use of sources, and provides revealing comparisons between Wister's western works and the writings of other authors treating the same region.

The West, Scharnhorst shows, was the crucible in which Wister tested and expressed his political opinions, most of them startlingly conservative by present standards. Yet The Virginian remains the template for the western novel today. More than any other Western writer of the past century and a half, Wister's career merits resurrection.
Number of Pages: 278
Dimensions: 0.63 x 8.5 x 5.5 IN
Publication Date: February 12, 2024

Made with care

Great value

Elegant design

Quality materials

Details

This product is crafted with quality materials to ensure durability and performance. Designed with your convenience in mind, it seamlessly fits into your everyday life.

Shipping & Returns

We strive to process and ship all orders in a timely manner, working diligently to ensure that your items are on their way to you as soon as possible.

We are committed to ensuring a positive shopping experience for all our customers. If for any reason you wish to return an item, we invite you to reach out to our team for assistance, and we will evaluate every return request with care and consideration.

Play video