The Virginian: A Horseman on the Plains.

“When a man ain't got no ideas of his own, he'd ought to be kind o' careful who he borrows 'em from": First Edition of Owen Wister's The Virginian

The Virginian: A Horseman on the Plains.

WISTER, Owen.

Item Number: 59053

New York: The Macmillan Company, 1902.

First edition of the first true fictional western ever written. Octavo, original tan cloth stamped in red, black and gilt. With eight full-page illustrations by Arthur Keller. In near fine condition, with a contemporary Blairhame bookplate. Housed in a contemporary custom half morocco slipcase, which has preserved this example’s condition. From the library of Jean Hersholt, with her bookplate. Then later in The Mrs. J. Insley Blair collection with the attractive Blairhame bookplate. An exceptionally fresh example of this classic novel.

Owen Wister’s novel of Wyoming cowpunchers “became one of the first mass-market bestsellers and stands as a defining text for America’s most durable hero— the cowboy… In a way, after The Virginian, there need never have been another western. In a way, there wasn’t” (Harvard Magazine). It has been the basis for several films, most notably in 1929, directed by Victor Fleming and starring Gary Cooper as The Virginian.

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