WISTER, OWEN American writer, was born in Philadelphia, July 14, 186o. On graduating from Harvard in 1882 he intended to devote himself to music. He went abroad for study; but family reasons forced him to return, and be spent several years in Arizona and New Mexico. He then entered the Harvard law school, graduating in 1888, was admitted to the bar in 1889 and for two years practised in Philadelphia. Thereafter he devoted his time to literary work.
His novel The Virginian (1902) has the distinction of doing as much to shape the romantic conception of the cowboy West as any other single factor. Red Men and White (1896) and Lin McLean (1898)
also contributed to the legends of the cunning horse thief, the chival rous rancher and the vanishing red man. Philosophy 4 (1903), a divert ing college story, and the romance Lady Baltimore (1906) were very popular. blister's other publications include Ulysses S. Grant (19oo), The Seven Ages of Washington (1907), The Pentecost of Calamity (1915) and Neighbours Henceforth (1922).