It is remarkable how many successful writers get into literature
by accident. Very few novelists begin by taking up writing as a
profession: most of them drift into it from other fields. Owen
Wister was no exception to this. He settled down in Philadelphia to
practise law; but the call of the pen was too strong for him. He
was thirty-one years old before he began to write.
Owen Wister is a grandson of Frances Anne Kemble, better known as
Fannie Kemble, the famous actress. He was born on July 14, 1860,
in Philadelphia. When he was ten years old he was taken to Europe,
where he remained three years. On his return to this country he
entered St. Paul’s School, Concord, whence he went to Harvard,
graduating in 1882. He took highest honors in music.
At Harvard he showed that he could write when he produced a
libretto, “Dido and Æneas,” for one of the Hasty Pudding Club
entertainments. When there he also edited one of the college
papers, and in his junior year wrote a poem on Beethoven, which was
published in the Atlantic Monthly.
With the intention of becoming a music critic Wister went abroad
once more. He began the study of composition under Liszt in Paris.
In 1883 he changed his plans and returned to America. His health
was bad; so he went hunting in Wyoming and Arizona.
He found not only new strength, but a new world. The stirring
atmosphere of the West woke in him a desire to write about it;
but he did nothing at this time. He returned east and entered the
Harvard Law School. He graduated in 1888, and a year later was
admitted to the bar in Philadelphia.
But the West had great attraction for him. In the next ten years he
made fifteen trips there. He soon saw that law was not his career.
In 1891 a series of studies and stories of the West by Wister
started in Harper’s Magazine. These were later gathered together in
a volume called “Red Men and White.” All the characters in these
sketches were true to life; the Indian was the Indian of fact, and
the cowboy was the cowboy of reality.
When Wister first began to write a fellow-townsman and critic of
him said, “Owen Wister has written some creditable stories; but so,
to be sure, have many others. His real strength lies in musical
criticism.” This opinion hardly holds good today.
“The Virginian” is the best thing that Wister has done. It is
absolutely realistic. This is a quality of all this author’s work,
as is shown by an anecdote he himself tells:
“Once a cowpuncher listened patiently while I read him a
manuscript. It concerned an event on an Indian reservation. ‘Was
that the Crow reservation?’ he inquired at the finish. I told him
that it was no real reservation and no real event; and his face
expressed displeasure. ‘Why,’ he demanded, ‘do you waste your time
writing what never happened, when you know so many things that did
happen?’”
So well was the story told that the cowboy had believed he was
listening to facts.
“Lady Baltimore” was another successful novel of Wister’s, and
besides he has written several interesting biographies, the best of
which is “The Seven ages of Washington.”
Wister is not only a writer. He has actively fought for decent
government in Philadelphia. At one election he ran for city
councilman of his ward, knowing that his fight was hopeless. He is
an American through and through, and in his books he portrays the
best things in the life of our country.
PREPARED BY THE EDITORIAL STAFF OF THE MENTOR ASSOCIATION
ILLUSTRATION FOR THE MENTOR, No. 25
Transcriber’s Notes:
The printing error “Univeristy” was changed to “University” on page
18 (law department of the University of Virginia). Other uncommon
spellings were retained.