Owen (FRW) WisterAmerican author and historian Owen Wister, who lived from July 14, 1860, to July 21, 1938, is regarded as the "father" of western fiction. His work on The Virginian and a biography of Ulysses S. Grant are the most renowned.
On July 14, 1860, Owen Witer was born in the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania district of Germantown. His father, the wealthy physician Owen Jones Wister, was raised in Grumblethorpe in Germantown. His mother, Sarah Butler Wister, was the daughter of Pierce Mease Butler and British actress Fanny Kemble.
Before attending St. Paul's School in Concord, New Hampshire, and Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, where he was a member of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals and Delta Kappa Epsilon, Wister temporarily attended schools in Switzerland and Britain (Alpha chapter).
Wister's first book, a spoof of The Swiss Family Robinson from 1812, was published in 1882. He spent numerous summers in the American West, where he developed a fascination for the people, legends, and landscape.
Wister wed Mary Channing, a relative of his, in 1898. The couple has six kids together. In 1913, Channing passed away while giving a delivery. In 1933, Marina Wister, their daughter, wed the painter Andrew Dasburg.
Wister passed away in 1938 at his Saunderstown, Rhode Island, residence. He is interred in Philadelphia's Laurel Hill Cemetery. Read More Read Less
