Owen Wister: Chronicler of the West, Gentleman of the East

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.
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Owen Wister: Chronicler of the West, Gentleman of the East

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.
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Owen Wister: Chronicler of the West, Gentleman of the East

Owen Wister: Chronicler of the West, Gentleman of the East

by Darwin Payne
Owen Wister: Chronicler of the West, Gentleman of the East

Owen Wister: Chronicler of the West, Gentleman of the East

by Darwin Payne

Paperback(Reprint)

$24.95 
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Overview


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.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780803237698
Publisher: UNP - Bison Books
Publication date: 10/01/2011
Edition description: Reprint
Product dimensions: 5.90(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.10(d)

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.

Table of Contents


Preface
Introduction
Part One
THE MUSICAL PRODIGY
I. A Gentleman Born (1860-1878)
II. Harvard, Class of '82 (1878-1882)
III. The European Judgment (1882-1883)
IV. A Boston Stopover (1883-1885)
V. Discovery (1885)
Part Two
THE WESTERN STORYTELLER
VI. An Uncertain Scholar (1885-1888)
VII. Western Storyteller (1889-1892)
VIII. In Search of Material (1892-1895)
IX. Fame and Marriage (1895-1898)
X. Overnight Celebrity (1899-1902)
XI. "The Virginian" on Broadway (1903-1904)
XII. A Novel of Manners (1904-1906)
Part Three
THE CURMUDGEON
XIII. In the Public Arena (1907-1908)
XIV. Tribulations (1909-1914)
XV. The Curmudgeon Unveiled (1914-1923)
XVI. Entanglements (1923-1938)
Notes
Index
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