Owen Wister

Wister was born on July 14, 1860, in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. His father, Owen Jones Wister, was a wealthy physician raised at "Butler Place" which adjoined Belfied, the Wister family estate in Germantown. His mother, Sarah Butler Wister, was the daughter of Fanny Kemble, a British actress. Wister attended boarding schools in Switzerland and Britain. He studied at St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and entered Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1878. He was a member of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals, and a member of Delta Kappa Epsilon (Alpha chapter). Wister was also a member of the Porcellian Club, through which he became friends with Theodore Roosevelt. As a senior, Wister wrote the Hasty Pudding's then most successful show, Dido and Aeneas, whose proceeds aided in the construction of their theater. Wister graduated summa cum laude from Harvard in 1882. He studied for two years at a Paris conservatory and wrote six operas. They were never produced and he gave up his dream of a career in music. He worked briefly in a bank in New York before studying law; he graduated from Harvard Law School in 1888 and passed the bar in 1890. He practiced with a Philadelphia firm but was never truly interested in that career. ==Career==

In 1882, Wister started his writing career with the publication of The New Swiss Family Robinson, which parodied the 1812 novel The Swiss Family Robinson. It was well received, and Mark Twain wrote a letter to Wister praising of the work. Wister traveled to the American West to improve his health due to an illness that caused him hallucinations, headaches, and vertigo. '' by Wister and Kirke La Shelle In 1904, Wister collaborated with Kirke La Shelle on a successful stage adaptation of The Virginian that featured Dustin Farnum in the title role. Farnum reprised the role ten years later in Cecil B. DeMille's film adaptation of the play. The Virginian was the basis for five Western movies and was turned into a popular television show in the 1960s. Wister moved away from writing Westerns, and his later work focused on biographies, including ones on Ulysses S. Grant, Theodore Roosevelt, and George Washington. and a member of the Board of Overseers of Harvard University. He was an associate member of the Boone and Crockett Club ==Personal life==

In 1898, Wister married Mary Channing, his second cousin. The couple had six children. Mary died during childbirth in 1913. Their daughter, Mary Channing Wister, married artist Andrew Dasburg in 1933. Wister built an estate in Saunderstown, Rhode Island, named Crowfield, and died there He was interred in Laurel Hill Cemetery in Philadelphia. ==Legacy==

In 1958, Wister's daughter, Fenny Kemble Wister, published his letters and journals in Owen Wister Out West. His diaries of life in Wyoming are kept at the American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming. Mount Wister, just within the western boundary of the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, is named for him. Near a house that Wister built near La Mesa, California, but never occupied due to his wife's death, is a street called Wister Drive. In the same neighborhood are Virginian Lane and Molly Woods Avenue (named for a character in The Virginian). All of those streets were named by Wister himself. Wister was admitted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame in 2010. ==Bibliography==

• The Virginian (1914 film) directed by Cecil B. DeMille, with Dustin Farnum • The Virginian (1923 film) with Kenneth Harlan and Florence Vidor • The Virginian (1929 film) with Gary Cooper and Walter Huston • The Virginian (1946 film) with Joel McCrea and Brian Donlevy • The Virginian (1962–1971 TV series) with James Drury and Doug McClure • The Virginian 2000 telefilm with Bill Pullman, Diane Lane, John Savage, Colm Feore, and Dennis Weaver • The Virginian 2014 telefilm with Trace Adkins, Brendan Penny, Ron Perlman, and Victoria Pratt ==References==